FLASHBACK – Newly arrived South Africans wait to hear welcome statements from U.S. government officials in a hangar at Atlantic Aviation Dulles near Washington Dulles International Airport on May 12, 2025 in Dulles, Virginia. Dozens of white South Africans, also called Afrikaners, accepted an invitation from the Trump Administration to come to the United States as refugees. They say they are fleeing job discrimination and racial violence in their home country. Trump has halted virtually all refugee admissions for people fleeing famine and war but has created an expedited path into the U.S. for Afrikaners, descendants of white Europeans who created and led the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
By Felicia J. Persaud
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Oct. 24, 2025: Reuters recently reported that the Donald Trump administration is discussing capping U.S. refugee admissions at about 40,000 for the next fiscal year – with a majority of those spots in the refugee program reserved – uhm – for white South Africans.
According to the report, “some 30,000 of the 40,000 spaces would be devoted to Afrikaners,” the primarily Dutch-descended minority in South Africa that Trump officials claim – without evidence – are victims of racial discrimination and violence at the hands of majority-Black South Africans.
Let’s pause there.
The ancestors of these same Afrikaners arrived in South Africa in 1652, and by the 20th century, their nationalism gave rise to the National Party, the architects of apartheid – one of the most brutal, government-sanctioned systems of racial oppression in modern history. Under their rule, millions of Black South Africans were stripped of land, dignity, education, and even citizenship.
After decades of domestic struggle and global sanctions, apartheid officially ended with South Africa’s first multiracial elections in 1994, when Nelson Mandela became president. The National Party – the same one that enforced apartheid – was eventually dissolved in 2005.
Today, there are about 2.7 to 3 million Afrikaners, roughly 4 to 5 percent of South Africa’s population. Yet, they continue to hold a disproportionate share of the country’s wealth.
Studies show that White households – which include Afrikaners – still control the vast majority of South Africa’s wealth, while Black households own only five cents for every rand held by their White counterparts. The top 10 percent of South Africans own 85 percent of the nation’s wealth – and that top tier remains overwhelmingly White.
So, these are the so-called “victims” the Trump administration wants to prioritize as refugees?
Reuters reported that the White House has even debated whether non-White South Africans could qualify for the refugee program.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act as published on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services site, clearly defines who qualifies as a refugee:
“Under United States law, a refugee is someone who:
- Is located outside of the United States;
- Is of special humanitarian concern to the United States;
- Demonstrates that they were persecuted or fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group;
- Is not firmly resettled in another country;
- Is admissible to the United States.
A refugee does not include anyone who ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”
But the administration’s goal is unmistakable: to Make America Whiter.
And let’s be clear – I didn’t say “White Again.” Because America was never white. It was brown and Indigenous long before any European colonizers arrived.
Yet, according to the administration, these descendants of apartheid’s architects are now the ones in need of rescue. The irony is as thick as it gets.
However, so far, only 93 Afrikaners have been admitted to the United States as refugees since May. The first group of 59 reportedly received the red-carpet treatment in May, followed by 34 more as of early August, according to a White House official.
But even that honeymoon is wearing thin. Some of the new arrivals have already complained about a lack of government benefits – apparently unaware that Trump gutted refugee support programs after taking office. One member of that initial group even emailed the Department of Health and Human Services two weeks after arrival, pleading for help to get a Social Security number and work permit.
Oh, the irony.
Welcome to America, Afrikaners! You’re learning quickly that the promises of your political savior come with a twist. You’re not being “rescued” – you’re being used as pawns in a cynical game meant to re-engineer America’s demographics.
But even for you, the welcome mat stops at the border. The same anti-immigrant system that cages children, slashes benefits, revokes greencards, TPS and refugee status, and shatters families is now turning its cold face your way. You may be white, but you’re still immigrants – and in Donald Trump’s America, that’s crime enough.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Felicia J. Persaud is the founder and publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, the only daily newswire and digital platform dedicated exclusively to Caribbean Diaspora and Black immigrant news across the Americas.
