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Trump challenges South Africa over "genocide"
During a White House meeting, President Donald Trump strongly challenged South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. This confrontation follows Trump's decision to eliminate all U.S. aid to South Africa and to welcome numerous white South African farmers into the U.S. These actions were part of Trump's argument that a "genocide" was occurring in South Africa. Mvemba Phezo Dizolele is a senior fellow and director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and is speaking with LiveNOW's Christina Evans.
An additional 10,000 white South Africans will be allowed into the U.S. as refugees this year, but the Trump administration will continue blocking people from other countries into the program.
Trump suspended the refugee program on his first day in office, but he has since amended his policy to allow thousands of Afrikaners – a group of white South Africans descended mainly from Dutch settlers – while not allowing people from other countries fleeing war and strife.
More white South African refugees
What they're saying:
In the Tuesday announcement on the Federal Register, President Donald Trump said because of "an unforeseen emergency refugee situation" he was raising the refugee cap. He blamed the South African government for "recent increases in the incitement of racially motivated violence" but gave no specific information.
The administration says Afrikaners are subject to persecution in their home country, a charge the government in South Africa denies.
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"I hereby determine that the admission to the United States of Afrikaners from South Africa in response to this emergency is justified by the grave humanitarian concerns and is otherwise in the national interest," Trump said in the announcement.
U.S. Customs and Boarder Protection - Homeland Security
Dig deeper:
The administration indicated last year that it would approve up to 7,500, mostly Afrikaners, during the fiscal year stretching from October 2025 through September 2026. Last week, in a notice to Congress informing it of the increase, the administration said that "unforeseen developments in South Africa created an emergency refugee situation." The change raises the limit to 17,500.
The White House met with key congressional committees about the issue last week, saying Afrikaners are seeing the erasure of their history in school textbooks.
The other side:
Democrats called the policy "indefensible."
"The administration’s shameful approach to refugee resettlement is organized around prioritizing white-only Afrikaners and betraying everyone else, including thousands of Afghan allies who risked their lives for our nation, and thousands of other approved and vetted refugees twisting in the wind," said Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Alex Padilla of California, and Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Pramila Jayapal of Washington in a statement.
Trump’s baseless claims of ‘white genocide’
The backstory:
In a contentious White House meeting in May last year, Trump forcefully confronted South Africa’s president in the Oval Office with baseless claims that white farmers are being systemically killed.
As he leafed through printouts to underscore his point, he said South Africa’s white farmers have faced "death, death, death, horrible death." Trump was unmoved when South African President Cyril Ramaphosa pushed back and said "that is not government policy" and "we are completely opposed to that."
RELATED: Trump used photos from wrong country as evidence of 'white genocide' in South Africa
"These are all white farmers that are being buried," Trump said as he held up an article with a photo.
Reports revealed that the photo Trump showed as evidence – a screenshot of a Reuters video – was not filmed in South Africa.
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President Trump speaks with South African President
US President Donald Trump hosted South Africa?s leader at the White House on Wednesday for a meeting. This comes after Trump accused the country?s government of allowing ?genocide? to take place toward minority white farmers.
White South African refugee program
By the numbers:
More than 6,000 people have been approved through the refugee program since the beginning of the fiscal year in October, according to official data. All of those were from white people from South Africa except for three people from Afghanistan.
During his first administration, Trump slashed the number of refugees approved every year. Then the Biden administration built the system back up, setting a goal of admitting 125,000 refugees in his last year in office.
Big picture view:
Presidents set the cap on how many refugees the U.S. will approve through the program each year, and historically, they’ve allocated those numbers across various geographic regions while factoring in wars or conflicts that spark humanitarian needs around the globe.
The refugee program, administered by the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, is distinct from asylum. People hoping to come through the refugee program must be living abroad and undergo vetting and other checks before being admitted to the U.S., whereas those seeking asylum are already on U.S. soil. A visa, however, is not a guarantee that the holder will be allowed to enter the U.S.
"For nearly half a century, the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program embodied a simple but powerful, bipartisan idea: that the United States would offer safety to the world’s most vulnerable refugees," said Beth Oppenheim, President & CEO of HIAS, in a statement. "This administration is now dismantling that legacy in plain sight."
The Source: This article includes information from The Associated Press and previous FOX Local reporting.