Welcome South African refugees, yes, but Afghans, too

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Patricia Lopez / Bloomberg Opinion

As one of the first acts of his second term, President Trump suspended the U.S. refugee program, not to be restarted “until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”

Almost four months later, it is now clear which refugees align with those interests, and which do not: Prosperous, white South African farmers are allowed in, while Afghans fleeing the Taliban are not.

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In February, Trump claimed that the South Africans, or Afrikaners, were fleeing “government-sponsored, race-based discrimination” in their native country. This week, when asked at a news conference why the Afrikaners merited an exception to a program that’s been closed since Jan. 20, Trump said: “Because they’re being killed. … It’s a genocide that’s taking place that you people don’t want to write about.”

It’s ironic that Trump finds it so easy to acknowledge systemic racism in South Africa while denying its effects in the U.S. Even worse is the administration’s admission of white Afrikaners to the U.S., while it works to deport refugees and asylum-seekers — many of whom are not white — already in the country. As for genocide, little evidence has surfaced; according to news reports, an estimated 50 farmers, mostly Afrikaners, were killed in South Africa between January and September of 2024.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-welcome-south-african-refugees-yes-but-afghans-too/

[underpants]

1. There's no genocide or attacks on white farmers

Yet Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, said that the spirit of NAMPO this week reaffirms that “genocide” of white South African farmers “was imaginary and not happening in our country.”



“I think the refugees that have gone [to the U.S.] are not well-established family farming businesses like we are,” Harris, a farmer of Afrikaans heritage, told the paper. “I think they don’t have an opportunity in the country and they might think that, ‘This is an opportunity for us.’ I don’t think they’re really fleeing because they are scared or worried, I think they see it as an opportunity.”

“There is no genocide in South Africa,” Boshoff, CEO of AgBiz, added. “People who live in rural areas, who are often farmers, are simply more vulnerable to crime and violent crime because they live in remote areas.”

“We can see that farm murders in South Africa have a slightly higher rate per capita than murders in general, but it’s farmers and farmworkers, which is not all necessarily white,” Minnaar Chairman of AGRI Sa said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/africa/trump-musk-south-africa-refugee-claims-white-farmers-genocide-rcna206327