Almost 70,000 South Africans have indicated their desire to emigrate to America after President Donald Trump’s executive order granting shelter to the country’s white minority, specifically Afrikaners.
Trump’s February 7th order reduced funding to South Africa, in line with “government actions leading to disproportionate racially disfavored landowners’ violence.” The measure singled out Afrikaners a demographic comprising mostly Dutch and French colonial immigrant descendants following “unjust racial discrimination” against them. The directive had Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to dispense humanitarian relief to the people.
At the center of Trump’s complaint is South Africa’s land expropriation bill that he says would cause Afrikaners to lose their agricultural land. Yet the South African government disputes the claims, saying that no land was seized under the law.
The US embassy in South Africa confirmed that almost 70,000 individuals have inquired about the refugee program, according to figures from the South African Chamber of Commerce in the US Although inquiries do not constitute formal applications, the chamber president, Neil Diamond, disclosed that there are 67,042 names on the list, primarily people aged 25 to 45 with children. He added that the chamber had written to the State Department and US embassy in Pretoria to ask for a formal registration process for refugee status.
Strains between Pretoria and Washington have increased further over South Africa’s indictment of genocide against Israel during the current Gaza conflict. The Trump administration has accused South Africa of being supportive of Hamas and Iran and anti-American, and has expelled South Africa’s ambassador to the US.
