The new cap of 7,500 marks a historic low for the immigration-heavy United States. The US government justified the step with the “national interest”.
According to the government, white South Africans or other “victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective home countries” should be admitted. Trump accuses the former apartheid state of South Africa of a “genocide” against whites. In May, the United States took in 50 white South Africans and described them as refugees.
For its part, the South African government insists that whites face no persecution in their homeland. The white descendants of mostly Dutch settlers in South Africa only make up around seven percent of the country’s population and, three decades after the end of apartheid, have a significantly higher standard of living than black South Africans. White South Africans own two-thirds of the arable land. Their average income is three times that of the black population.
The chairwoman of the organization Global Refuge, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, criticized the US government’s move: “For more than four decades, the US refugee program has been a lifeline for families fleeing war, persecution and oppression.” She added that amid crises in countries like Afghanistan, Venezuela and Sudan, the Trump administration’s focus on admitting people from a single group “undermines both the purpose of the program and its credibility.”
In addition to drastically reducing refugee numbers, the Trump administration has also taken steps to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from citizens of Afghanistan, Haiti, Venezuela and other countries living in the United States.
In recent years, hundreds of thousands of people in the United States have received temporary residency in the United States through TPS. Since Trump took office in January, his administration had already revoked TPS protection status for people from Haiti, Venezuela and Afghanistan, among others.
The US federal government grants TPS status to people who authorities determine cannot return to their home country due to war, natural disasters or other “exceptional” conditions.
Trump had already announced during the election campaign that he wanted to take tough action against immigrants without a valid residence permit and deport millions of undocumented foreigners. Since he took office in January, masked ICE officers have been arresting immigrants in raids across the country. The US President’s actions are highly controversial.
