Some "Refugees" Welcome

On Inauguration Day in 2025, the new president signed an executive order to suspend refugee admissions to the U.S. It allowed for exceptions by the secretaries of State and Homeland Security “so long as they determine that the entry of such aliens as refugees is in the national interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States.”

Two-and-a-half weeks later, the White House cut off aid to South Africa to protest its land reform law and its disagreement with U.S. foreign policy. That order also stated, “the United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.”

Afrikaners are descended from early Boer (Dutch for “farmer”) settlers of Cape Colony in southern Africa, founded by the Dutch East India Company in 1652. “Trekboers” migrated inland with their herds. Conflict among Afrikaners, British colonists, and the indigenous Zulu—especially after the discovery of diamonds and gold—led to creation of the apartheid Union of South Africa and eventually to democratic elections. White South Africans, the majority of whom are Afrikaners, make up 7.3 percent of the population and own three-fourths of the privately held land. More than four out of five South Africans are black.

Afrikaners don’t much threaten American security or welfare. Nor do Afghans trying to escape Taliban reprisal for helping the U.S. military, nor families from Honduras or El Salvador threatened by gang violence and extortion. What measures the national interest? Given the administration’s vehement rejection of “racial preferences,” its preference for Afrikaners over desperate fugitives fleeing for their lives is hard to explain.

Image: Trekboers making camp, aquatint by Samuel Daniell, c. 1804.