The Trump administration on Monday defended its decision to offer refugee status to dozens of white Afrikaners who said they were persecuted in South Africa.

President Donald Trump in a press briefing at the White House defended welcoming 49 Afrikaners who arrived on a U.S.-chartered flight from South Africa on Monday. Trump told reporters that white Afrikaners are “being killed” in a “genocide.”

“They’re being killed, and we don’t want to see people be killed,” Trump said. “It’s a terrible thing that’s taking place. Farmers are being killed. They happen to be white, but whether they’re white or black makes no difference to me. But white farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa, and the newspapers and the television media doesn’t even talk about it.”

The president mentioned that the United States may choose to skip the upcoming G20 summit to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in November unless the South African government takes steps to stop the persecution.

The refugee policy sparked questions of race, since the persecuted Afrikaners are white and targeted because of their race.

“I don’t care who they are. I don’t care about their race, their color. I don’t care about their height, their weight. I don’t care about anything,” Trump said. “I just know that what’s happening is terrible. I have people that live in South Africa. They say it’s a terrible situation taking place, so we’ve essentially extended citizenship to those people to escape from that violence and come here.”

President Trump on giving refugee status to South Africans: "It's a genocide. White Farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated. And the media doesn't even talk about it. If it were the other way around, that would be the only story they talk about." pic.twitter.com/YMP2QhYgzt

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) May 12, 2025

Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed Trump’s comments in a post on X: “​​The South African government has treated these people terribly — threatening to steal their private land and subjected them to vile racial discrimination. The Trump Administration is proud to offer them refuge in our great country.”

The South African government has denied that white farmers are being persecuted.

“They can’t provide any proof of any persecution because there’s not any,” said Ronald Lamola, the country’s international relations and cooperation minister, according to The Washington Post. “There is not any form of persecution to white South Africans.”

The U.S. president suspended aid to South Africa in February. In the executive order directing the action, Trump accused the South African government of “fueling” violence against white landowners and legislating “to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”

Trump ally Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, has said that his former home has “openly racist ownership laws.”

The Episcopal Church’s refugee resettlement organization refused to resettle white South African refugees, citing a commitment to “racial justice.”

Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe announced the decision on behalf of Episcopal Migration Ministries on Monday, just a day after 49 South Africans began their journey to the United States.

“In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step,” Rowe announced after the government contacted Episcopal Migration Ministries requesting assistance in resettling the South African refugees.

Rowe went on to say that the organization, which has a long history of receiving federal grants to resettle refugees, will terminate their agreements with the government. “We have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government.”

President Donald Trump extended refugee status to white South Africans amid concerns that the minority group is being subjected to racial discrimination and has been scapegoated by politicians who’ve called for violence against them.

“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social in February. “It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention. A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see.”

The Trump administration announced an executive order just days later, offering white South Africans refugee status in the United States. The administration cited “hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners,” as well as a new law that will “enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”

Controversy erupted after Julius Malema, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa, chanted “shoot to kill” and “kill the boer” at a political rally in reference to the Dutch South African population.

South Africa’s Julius Malema, the party leader of the EFF calls for killing white people:

“Shoot to kiII. KiII the Boer, the farmer”pic.twitter.com/vFjqJ9l8GR https://t.co/sxzS0d0Dn4

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 22, 2025

Secretary of State Marco Rubio reaffirmed the Trump administration’s decision to offer refugee status to white South Africans in a post on X on Monday.

“The South African government has treated these people terribly — threatening to steal their private land and subjected them to vile racial discrimination,” Rubio said. “The Trump Administration is proud to offer them refuge in our great country.”