Ruling South African Party Furious After White Refugees Escape to US; Want ‘Accountability for Historic Privilege’
Teh Episcopal Church has decided not to assist the U.S. government with the resettlement of 59 South African refugees, specifically white Afrikaners, who arrived in the U.S.on Monday. Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe announced that the church would end its partnership with the government, citing a commitment to racial justice and the church’s historic ties to the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. This decision comes in response to an executive order signed by former President Trump, which suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and granted refugee status to some Afrikaners amidst new south african laws viewed as discriminatory.
The church has resettled around 110,000 refugees over the past 40 years but will conclude its federal refugee resettlement agreements by the end of the fiscal year. The arrival of these 59 refugees marks one of the few instances of refugee admission since January. The move has drawn criticism from the African National Congress, which suggests the refugees are evading accountability for ancient privileges. The White House condemned the episcopal Church’s decision, arguing that afrikaners, who have faced persecution, deserve equal consideration for refugee resettlement.
The Episcopal Church rejected the Trump administration’s request for assistance, saying it would not help the 59 South African refugees that arrived in the U.S. on Monday.
The church’s presiding bishop, Sean Rowe, took it a step further and said the Episcopal Migration Ministries would be terminating its 40-year-old partnership with the U.S. government, according to a statement from the church published Monday.
“In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step,” Rowe’s statement read.
“Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government,” Rowe said.
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order largely suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, a program the church participated in, to control the immigration crisis created by the Biden administration.
“Then, just over two weeks ago, the federal government informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of our federal grant, we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government has classified as refugees,” Rowe said in his Monday statement.
In February, Trump signed another executive order granting some Afrikaners refugee status in the U.S.
The South Africans’ arrival on Monday makes them some of the few, if not the only, refugees to arrive in the country since January, according to the Religion News Service.
Trump’s order followed a new law passed in South Africa that allowed the government to seize private land for public use without compensation.
Trump said the law would target South Africa’s white minority, the Afrikaners, Fox News reported.
The Afrikaners are descendants of the Boers, who settled in Africa from Europe hundreds of years ago, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
This part right here means “they got away before we had a chance to get our revenge and punish them” pic.twitter.com/i1XX0SBojk
— Muller 🔶 (@mystisk_za) May 13, 2025
The African National Congress criticized Trump and the refugees in a statement on Tuesday.
“What the instigators of this falsehood seek is not safety, but impunity from transformation. They flee not from persecution, but from justice, equality and accountability for historic privilege,” the statement read.
Anna Kelly, a deputy press secretary at the White House, condemned the Episcopal Church’s move.
“Any religious group should support the plight of Afrikaners, who have been terrorized, brutalized, and persecuted by the South African government,” Kelly told The Daily Signal. “The Afrikaners have faced unspeakable horrors and are no less deserving of refugee resettlement than the hundreds of thousands of others who were allowed into the United States during the past administration.”
The Episcopal church, known for its progressive ideology, had settled nearly 110,000 refugees in the last four decades.
Those refugees includes many from Ukraine, Myanmar, and the Congo, according to The Guardian.
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