The Episcopal Church has halted a refugee resettlement program with the federal authorities over the prioritization of white South Africans whereas different populations see their immigration protections eliminated.
“Simply over two weeks in the past, the federal authorities knowledgeable Episcopal Migration Ministries that underneath the phrases of our federal grant, we’re anticipated to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. authorities has categorised as refugees,” Presiding Bishop Sean W. Rowe mentioned in a Monday letter.
“In mild of our church’s steadfast dedication to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we aren’t capable of take this step. Accordingly, we have now decided that, by the tip of the federal fiscal yr, we’ll conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal authorities,” Rowe added.
The State Division announced that the first group of white South Africans entered the U.S. on Monday.
Division spokesperson Tammy Bruce asserted in an announcement that the group was in danger and confronted unjust racial discrimination in South Africa, saying taking them in was a transfer to safeguard victims of racial discrimination.
“Nobody ought to need to worry having their property seized with out compensation or changing into the sufferer of violent assaults due to their ethnicity. Within the coming months, we’ll proceed to welcome extra Afrikaner refugees and assist them rebuild their lives in our nice nation,” Bruce mentioned in her prior assertion.
A South Africa international ministry spokesperson has ripped the Trump administration’s prioritization of Afrikaners as “politically motivated.”
In February, President Trump signed an executive order in which he pushed his Cupboard to devise a resettlement program for Afrikaners who he mentioned “are victims of unjust racial discrimination,” referencing a South African land regulation with an goal to combat towards the nation’s racist apartheid period.
“I need to be very clear about why we made this resolution — and what we consider lies forward for Episcopal Migration Ministries’ important work. It has been painful to observe one group of refugees, chosen in a extremely uncommon method, obtain preferential remedy over many others who’ve been ready in refugee camps or harmful circumstances for years,” Rowe mentioned in his Monday letter.
“I’m saddened and ashamed that most of the refugees who’re being denied entrance to the USA are courageous individuals who labored alongside our army in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face hazard at residence due to their service to our nation,” he added.
On Monday, the administration formally lifted temporary protected status for Afghans, eradicating a protect from deportation for these within the nation at the same time as advocates say the refugees may face violence and persecution underneath the Taliban.
The Hill has reached out to the White Home for remark.