Exclusive: US diplomats asked if non-whites qualify for Trump refugee program for South Africans – In early July, the top diplomat at the U.S. embassy in South Africa asked Washington about a disputed policy: might non-whites apply for a refugee program for white South Africans if they met other requirements? President Donald Trump’s February executive order established the program for “Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination,” a Dutch-descended ethnic group.
Embassy Charge d’Affairs David Greene requested if the embassy could process race-based discrimination claims from other minority groups including “coloured” Afrikaans-speaking South Africans in a July 8 diplomatic cable. Currently, South Africans call mixed-race persons “coloured” due to apartheid. The State Department’s refugee and migration bureau’s top officer, Spencer Chretien, emailed days later that the program is for white individuals.
Three persons familiar with the email described it to Reuters, but Reuters could not independently verify its language. Exclusive: US diplomats asked if non-whites qualify for Trump refugee program
On July 18, the State Department did not comment on the email or cable but said the policy was broader than Chretien’s email. The government reiterated its May website advise that applicants “must be of Afrikaner ethnicity or be a member of a racial minority in South Africa.” He declined to respond through a State Department official. Greene declined Reuters attempts for comment. Unreported internal negotiations between the embassy and the State Department show the difficulty of implementing a policy to help white Afrikaners in a racially diverse country with mixed-race Afrikaans speakers and white English speakers.
Under the initiative, the State Department has resettled 88 South Africans, including the first 59 in May. One insider predicted 15 more will arrive before August’s end. Trump, a Republican who reconquered the White House promising a broad immigration crackdown, froze refugee admissions from around the world indefinitely, saying the U.S. will only admit those who “can fully and appropriately assimilate.”Weeks later, Obama signed an executive order urging the U.S. to resettle Afrikaners, claiming “violence against racially disfavored landowners,” similar to far-right accusations but denied by South Africa. Exclusive: US diplomats asked if non-whites qualify for Trump refugee program
One source claimed U.S. officials implementing the program have been debating whether racial groupings are eligible since the Trump order.
In the July 8 cable, Greene summarized ethnic and racial groups in the country before obtaining eligibility advice. Greene referenced Afrikaners, mixed-race South Africans, and Khoisan aborigines. He claimed Jews were interested, but in South Africa they are a religious minority, not a race. “In the absence of other guidance, [the U.S. embassy] intends to give consideration to well-founded claims of persecution based on race for other racial minorities,” Greene said.
Two sources indicated at least one colored family has fled to the U.S. Two sources said the cable compelled the government to clarify whether the program is for whites solely and whether other aggrieved minorities qualify. The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration’s chief officer, conservative Chretien, penned op-eds supporting the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” federal government makeover. South Africa had separate schools, neighborhoods, and public facilities for Black, coloured, white, and Asian people until 1994, when democratic elections ended apartheid. According to the 2022 census, 81% of South Africans are black. In South Africa, 8% are colored and 3% are Indian. Although Afrikaners and other white South Africans make about 7% of the population, they hold three-quarters of private land. Trump denied giving Afrikaners preferential treatment because they are white in May.
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