MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — Refugee advocates were outraged Tuesday after President Donald Trump’s administration welcomed 59 Afrikaners, including children, saying they were in danger in post-apartheid South Africa.
Trump suspended the refugee resettlement program on his first day in office. A month later, Trump made an exception for white farmers who are a minority in South Africa.
“It’s a genocide that’s taking place. White farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated,” Trump said Monday echoing claims that his adviser Elon Musk, who was born in Pretoria, had made on X.
Venezuelan-American Maria Corina Vegas, an executive member of the Miami-Dade Democratic Hispanic Caucus, was outraged.
“It’s a slap in the face to every immigrant and every refugee who has tried to come here and waited,” said Vegas, an advocate for Venezuelan refugees.
Republican Sen. Rick Scott defended Trump’s initial decision to turn away refugees from conflict zones.
“We are a welcoming country. What we don’t want is what was happening in the last administration,” Scott said. “We don’t want any criminals or terrorists or narcotraffickers.”
Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat, released a statement saying Trump was “rolling out the red carpet” for white South Africans while turning away Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans.
“The hypocrisy is blatant white supremacy,” Wilson said in the statement.
The Episcopal Church’s migration ministries declined to get involved in providing services to the South Africans citing a “commitment to racial justice and reconciliation.”
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