Would you like to know how I feel at this moment? Well, I’ll tell you anyway. I feel like putting my fist through a wall . . . only I’m too sane to actually do it. I need both of my hands.

But total, helpless frustration is the best description for my mood today. And it’s all because 54 people have been granted refugee status in the United States.

Am I anti-immigration? Absolutely not! This country was built by immigrants, including my own grandparents. Those who have come here legally over the past two centuries have made America the beautiful, diverse, successful “melting pot” that it is.

So what is it about these 54 people that has me so pissed off? Just this: they are not “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” that are inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. They are not fleeing desperate poverty, criminal gangs, or religious persecution.

They are, in fact, white South Africans. Afrikaners. The very people who themselves — or whose parents and grandparents — watched their black neighbors beaten, tortured, and imprisoned under their country’s system of apartheid not that many years ago.

And now they claim they are in need of refuge from alleged racial discrimination.

SERIOUSLY??!!!

An executive order signed by Donald Trump on February 7th of this year read as follows:

“The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take appropriate steps, consistent with law, to prioritize humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.” [Kate Barlett, NPR, May 8, 2025.]

In a most unusual move, a press conference is being planned for the group’s arrival next week at Dulles Airport, to be attended by high-level officials from both the State Department and Homeland Security. They have, in an exceptionally short period of time, been granted P1 refugee status, which, according to the State Department, is given to “individual cases referred by designated entities to the program by virtue of their circumstances and apparent need for resettlement.” [Id.]

There is no identification of the “entities” by whom they were referred, or why these 54 were chosen out of all the thousands who might be in the same circumstances.

This also places them on the path to U.S. citizenship, and renders them eligible for government benefits — the very benefits that American citizens are now in fear of having taken away from them by DOGE’s massive defunding.

Those who do not have relatives in the U.S. have been told they will be placed in a location that has a local organization to provide them with support. A document seen by NPR read, in part:

“Your case manager will pick you up from the airport and take you to housing that they have arranged for you. This housing may be temporary (like a hotel) while a local organization helps you identify more long-term housing. . . . You are expected to support yourself quickly in finding work. Adults are expected to accept entry level employment in fields like warehousing, manufacturing, and customer service. You can work toward higher level employment over time.” [Id.]

Well, there go a few dozen jobs that could be filled by American citizens.

And what circumstances have led to these lucky people receiving the red-carpet treatment? According to Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and South African-born Elon Musk (now, there’s a coincidence for you!), Afrikaners — many of whom are farmers — face persecution in South Africa. Trump says the South African government is guilty of “doing some terrible things . . . they are confiscating land, and actually they’re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that.” [Id.]

“Perhaps?” I don’t suppose you could be a bit more specific, could you?

Well, let’s see. The South African government has passed a new land reform bill, but thus far no land has been confiscated, and “expropriation without compensation” would only occur in rare instances. In fact, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa provides, in Section 25 headed “Property,” that:

“(1) No one may be deprived of property except in terms of law of general application, and no law may permit arbitrary deprivation of property.”

And in response to Trump’s allegations of discrimination, the South African Department of International Relations had this to say:

“It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the U.S. for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the U.S. from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.” [Id.]

Wow! They took the words right out of my mouth.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/10/25