In a sudden departure from the federal government, the Episcopal Church cut its decades-long refugee partnership following the Trump administration’s acceptance of a batch of white South African immigrants to the US through an expedited resettlement order.
The uproar was over 49 Afrikaners — South Africa’s white minority — who journeyed to Virginia this week. They launched a larger plan to resettle additional individuals who, the White House says, are fleeing persecution based on race.
The decision was immediately condemned, first by the government of South Africa and later by religious and charitable groups that charged the administration with favoritism toward white refugees against others fleeing equally desperate situations.
Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe described the church as no longer able to participate in what it saw as an unfair system.
“Special treatment” for any one group, he added, was anti to the Church’s doctrine of racial justice and solidarity with its Anglican brother in Southern Africa.
“This is persecution on the grounds of a protected characteristic – in this case, race. This is persecution on the grounds of race,” said Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, the Daily Mail reported.
He defended the refugee resettlement as being American law compliant and insisted that the Afrikaner treatment in South Africa was calling for action.
Trump himself stood strong when probed on the program.
“It’s a genocide that’s happening, and you people don’t want to write about it,” he stated.
“It’s a terrible thing that is going on, and the farmers are being killed; they just so happen to be white. Whether white or black does not concern me, but white farmers are brutally killed, and land is being expropriated in South Africa.”
White House policy, however, has been greeted with fierce criticism. South African officials have reacted angrily to charges of persecution, dismissing the charge of violence against whites on racial grounds as unfounded.
“There is no data whatsoever that supports that there is persecution of white South Africans,” Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said. “They don’t deserve that status, in our view.”
Humanitarian agencies also weighed in. World Relief called for a comprehensive refugee policy that treats all persecuted groups on a par.
Church World Service said it was prepared to work with South African immigrants but opposed speeding up the processing of one group relative to others “while life-saving resettlement to other groups of refugees is refused.”
Partisan tensions between Washington and Cape Town have grown in recent months, the Daily Mail says.
In March, South Africa’s ambassador to the U.S., Ebrahim Rasool, was recalled after criticizing Trump for inciting “white victimhood.” In retaliation, the administration charged Rasool with “race-baiting.”
The diplomatic tensions have followed the heels of Trump’s across-the-board cuts in foreign aid, including a total disallowance of U.S. funds to South Africa.
Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, has echoed the government’s line, claiming white South Africans are experiencing a “genocide” and attacking land ownership laws as “racist.”
Before boarding their flight, the 49 asylum seekers were cleared on criminal record checks, South Africa’s transport ministry stated, having been police-screened beforehand.
Reports from international economics indicate South Africa’s riches and land inequalities remain stark.
While whites make up a minority, they control most of the country’s private land and disproportionately dominate wealth — an apartheid legacy that continues to shape politics today.
Despite these disparities, South Africa’s Foreign Ministry issued a scathing rebuke of the U.S. resettlement action as “an attempt to undermine our constitutional democracy.”