Early in July, a cable from the senior US diplomat in South Africa asked Washington to clarify President Donald Trump's controversial refugee program namely whether non-white candidates could be eligible for resettlement if they qualified under the program.
The February executive order created a special refugee category for "Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unfair racial discrimination." Afrikaners are generally white descendants of Dutch settlers. But the US embassy in Pretoria questioned whether the policy would also cover other racial minorities who share Afrikaner culture, including "coloured" South Africans people of mixed racial descent who also speak Afrikaans.
The embassy's Charge d'Affaires, David Greene, dispatched a diplomatic cable on July 8, asking for instructions. He underlined the complicated racial makeup of South Africa, including the Khoisan group and Jewish citizens, and remarked on ambiguity in terms of racial eligibility.
Days after, Spencer Chretien, the head of the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, replied by email that the program was meant for whites. Reuters, which first broke the story, was unable to confirm from sources independently the language of the email but interviewed three sources who are familiar with the exchange.
In contrast, the State Department later issued a statement saying the program included Afrikaners and other racial minorities facing discrimination. This echoed guidance on its website, stating that applicants must be “of Afrikaner ethnicity or a member of a racial minority in South Africa.”
88 South Africans have since been resettled in the US under the order, with additional arrivals pending, but ambiguity within the administration persists, particularly regarding racial criteria of the executive order. At least one coloured family of South Africans has already been welcomed into the program, sources indicated.
The policy has been accused of echoing far-right talking points, including supposed "white genocide" in South Africa repeatedly refuted by the South African government. President Trump has insisted that his policy is not racist and told commentators in May that he backs applicants of any race.
However, there remains controversy. In a May meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Trump showed a distorted picture of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo as proof of white persecution in South Africa.
Though the White House reaffirmed its intentions to help "Afrikaners and other racial minorities," officials and diplomats are still arguing over how the refugee program should be fairly and uniformly applied in one of the globe's most racially diverse societies.
