Katia Beeden, life coach and campaigner for White South Africans who want to apply for U.S. refugee status, poses for a picture at her residence in Fish Hoek, Cape Town, South Africa, on April 8, 2025. (REUTERS/Shafiek Tassiem/File Photo)
President Donald Trump first initiated their resettlement with an executive order entitled, "Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa," directing the State Department to bump up Afrikaners to the front of the line for resettlement.
South Africans are now able to submit a statement of interest with the U.S. embassy in Pretoria, which will review the documents and contact those who are eligible for the interview process.
Trump has virtually halted the refugee program for those from war- and famine-ravaged nations like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. White South Africans say they have been denied jobs and targeted for violence on account of their race.
Trump’s executive order came in response to a law passed by the South African government allowing it to take private land for public use, sometimes without compensation. Trump claimed the law would be used to target South Africa’s White minority Afrikaner group, descended from Dutch and other European settlers who arrived more than 300 years ago.
TRUMP, SOUTH AFRICA IN GROWING ROW OVER HOTLY CONTESTED LAND LAW, COUNTRY'S DEALS WITH US FOES
President Donald Trump and South Africa were locked in a diplomatic row over a land expropriation act that Washington, D.C., says will lead to the takeover of White-owned farms. (MARCO LONGARI/AFP via Getty Images)
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The Afrikaner families traveling to the U.S. are largely from farming communities.
Since apartheid ended in the 1990s, South Africa has sought to atone for segregationist policies, including with the land redistribution law signed in January. The policy came after a 2017 audit found that White South Africans owned three-quarters of individually-owned farms and agricultural property, while making up 7% of the population. Black South Africans had been denied the right to own prime agricultural land during the apartheid era.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-south-african-refugees-brought-us-due-government-sponsored-racial-discrimination-state-dept