White South Africans land at Dulles as Trump proposes refugee status for group

With American flags in hand, white South African families were shuffled in front of cameras as they took some of their first steps on U.S. soil.

"I want you all to know that you are really welcome here," said Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.

Landau and Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar met the group of 59 Afrikaners, which included families with young children, who arrived on a flight chartered by the State Department.

With cameras rolling, Landau addressed the group of white South Africans whom the Trump administration is proposing to classify as refugees.

In his first week in office, President Donald Trump shut America's door to refugees from all around the world — including victims of genocide and war. Now, the president is making an exception for white South Africans. He ordered refugee status for the group to be fast-tracked, claiming they’re victims of racial persecution.

Afrikaners are a South African ethnic group descended from mostly Dutch settlers and dominated South Africa's politics and agriculture for generations.

“The president made it clear that Afrikaners in South Africa who are the victims of unjust racial discrimination would be welcome to come to the United States, and he's now delivering on that promise," Landau said.

South African government officials reject Trump administration officials' claims that members of the group face persecution.

As South Africa continues to address years of apartheid, a new law gives the government the ability to seize private land without compensation. No land has been expropriated, but Afrikaners who make up many rural communities have raised fears their land might be targeted, the Associated Press reports.

After Trump got into a public dispute with South Africa's president, he welcomed white landowners to the U.S.

South African government and immigrant groups push against refugee classification

Some U.S. groups that support refugees have suggested the Trump administration is only helping the Afrikaners because they’re white.

The South African government called the move purely political and says the Afrikaners are not refugees.

“It is most regrettable that it appears that the resettlement of South Africans to the United States under the guise of being ‘refugees’ is entirely politically motivated and designed to question South Africa’s constitutional democracy; a country which has in fact suffered true persecution under Apartheid rule and has worked tirelessly to prevent such levels of discrimination from ever occurring again,” Chrispin Phiri, a spokesperson for South Africa’s Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation, said in a statement Friday.

Laura Thompson Osuri, the executive director of Homes Not Borders, agreed. Thompson Osuri went to Dulles airport to protest and held a sign saying, "Afrikaners are not refugees."

"Just to show our displeasure with what they're doing right here,” Thompson Osuri said. When asked why, she said, "Because they're not real refugees."

"Most refugees come on normal airlines,” Thompson Osuri said. “They, you know, the [International Organization For Migration] sponsors the flight, they go through [the UN Refugee Agency] — they haven't gone through any of those means at all, so this is clearly not following the protocol."

Two other people pictured with Osuri held signs reading, "Real refugees are still waiting," and "Restore real refugee resettlement."

The president directed the Episcopal Church's migration services to help resettle the Afrikaners, and instead, the church announced Monday it plans to end its migration program by the end of the year.

It said, in part, "As Christians, we must be guided not by political vagaries … Jesus tells us to care for the poor and vulnerable as we would care for him, and we must follow that command. Right now, what that means is ending our participation in the federal government’s refugee resettlement program …"

What the president and Trump administration officials say

The State Department said the Afrikaners will be resettled across several states, but not in D.C., Maryland or Virginia.

As questions circle whether the administration is helping people who truly need help, or helping people because of the color of their skin, Trump said Monday the carve-out was not race-related.

“Farmers are being killed,” Trump told reporters. “They happen to be white. Whether they are white or Black makes no difference to me. White farmers are being brutally killed and the land is being confiscated in South Africa.”

White House deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser Stephen Miller defended the admission of white refugees on Friday, NBC News reported.

“What’s happening in South Africa fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created,” Miller said. “This is race-based persecution. The refugee program is not intended as a solution for global poverty, and historically, it has been used that way.”

Officials in South Africa have disputed that claim. 

There are also questions about what — if anything — the Trump administration's relationship with Elon Musk might have to do with the arrival of South African refugees.

Musk grew up in South Africa, and he donated millions to help get Trump elected. Musk shared a post on X earlier this year that claimed white South Africans are persecuted for their race.

Trump and Musk have accused the South African government of having racist anti-white laws and policies, but the claims of persecution and genocide center on a relatively small number of violent farm attacks and robberies on white people in rural communities.

The U.S. alleges those attacks are racially motivated and the South African government is “fueling” them by allowing anti-white rhetoric in politics and not doing enough to protect Afrikaner communities. The government has condemned the farm attacks, but says their cause is being deliberately mischaracterized.

Violent attacks on farm owners in South Africa have been a problem for years but represent a small percentage of the country’s extremely high violent crime rates, which affect all races. The government says there is no targeting of white people and farm attacks are part of its struggles with crime.

Groups representing farmers have recorded around 50 or less farm homicides a year in the last two years in South Africa. Those figures are set against a total of more than 20,000 homicides a year affecting all races.

“There is no data at all that backs that there is persecution of white South Africans or white Afrikaners in particular,” South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said. “White farmers get affected by crime just like any other South Africans.”

Still, many rural white communities have long expressed fear at the threat of violence and feel attacks against them in home invasions and robberies are especially brutal.

“So, we’ve essentially extended citizenship to those people ... to escape from that violence and come here,” Trump said.

The Trump administration has also criticized South Africa’s affirmative action policies as racist against whites and has falsely claimed white South Africans are having their land taken away by the government under a new expropriation law that promotes “racially discriminatory property confiscation.”