The Color Of Asylum— A Refuge System Built On White Supremacy

This Is What Apartheid Looks Like

Sudan, Ukraine, Syria, Congo and Myanmar are the countries that have produced the highest number of refugees over the past year, primarily driven by ongoing conflicts and crises. Over half of the world’s refugees come from just a small handful of countries: Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan, South Sudan,  Myanmar, Palestine, Venezuela and Sudan. The vehemently racist answer xenophobic Trump regime immediately implemented policies that significantly restrict refugee admissions from most countries. On January 20, 2025, Señor Trumpanzyy issued an executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) indefinitely. The suspension canceled departures for thousands of refugees who had already been vetted and approved for travel to the U.S., including approximately 100,000 refugees worldwide (with nearly 1,660 Afghan allies among them). Trump’s executive order declared admitting refugees “detrimental” to U.S. national interests, effectively pausing the program that has resettled refugees from crises in countries like Syria, Sudan and Myanmar since the Vietnam War era. However, 2 weeks later, on February 7— with the urging of right-wing, pro-apartheid  billionaires allied with his regime, Elon Musk, Peter Thief and David Sacks— Señor T issued a subsequent executive order making a specific exception for white Afrikaners from South Africa, allowing their resettlement as refugees. This is the only group explicitly exempted from the indefinite suspension. Notably, UNHCR data indicates no refugees have been resettled from South Africa as their country of origin in recent years, suggesting this policy doesnt align with typical refugee resettlement patterns and certainly reflects specific political/ideological priorities. 

Trump’s  proposed travel ban, reported the following month, March, targets 43 countries, including Sudan, Syria and Myanmar, with citizens from these countries facing complete entry bans or heightened scrutiny. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is listed in a “yellow” category, subject to potential restrictions if concerns are not addressed within 60 days. The ban, if finalized, would further limit any potential refugee admissions from these countries. The regimen has also revoked Temporary Protected Status (TPS) extensions for nationals of several countries, including Syria and Myanmar, and terminated parole programs, which could affect individuals from Ukraine and other crisis zones.

So, right now, the U.S. doesn’t accept refugees from Sudan, Ukraine, Syria, Congo, Myanmar, Afghanistan or any of the other crisis countries due to the indefinite suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and the only exception is for white Afrikaners from South Africa, a group not recognized as refugees by UNHCR. Let’s keep in mind that Musk’s, Thiel’s and Sack’s background, shaped by apartheid’s racial hierarchy, informs their support for narratives casting white Afrikaners as victims, which they have impressed on the easily-influenced and already racist Trump, aligning with the policy’s blatantly racist focus.

On Friday the NY Times published a report by a quartet of reporters about the first batch of white Afrikaner “refugees” coming to the U.S. tomorrow— extremely reminiscent of the hundreds of thousands of Nazi collaborators and sympathizers from Europe (including as many as 10,000 actual war criminals) the Dulles brothers made sure were resettled in New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Wisconsin where their descendants are, today, the backbone of those states’ Republican parties. “A top State Department official told South African officials on Friday that the United States planned to transport 54 Afrikaners to the United States on a charter flight scheduled to leave Johannesburg on Sunday… The arrival of the Afrikaners would cement Trump’s efforts to upend a program that for decades has allowed thousands of people fleeing war, famine and natural disaster to find safe haven in the United States. While the program remains suspended for refugees across the world, such as Congolese families in refugee camps and Rohingya seeking safety, white South Africans were processed much faster than is normal for these cases. Refugees can often wait years in camps around the world before they are processed and approved to travel to the United States. Before the first Trump administration, refugee resettlement took an average of 18 to 24 months, according to the American Immigration Council, an advocacy group for immigrants. Many refugees must wait years longer. The Afrikaners, however, had to wait no more than three months.”

South African government officials have vigorously disputed the claim by the United States that Afrikaners qualify for refugee status and conveyed those doubts in a diplomatic memo sent to the State Department this week, they said.

Alvin Botes, South Africa’s deputy foreign minister, also discussed the Afrikaner resettlement and other bilateral issues between the countries in a call on Friday with Christopher Landau, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, according to a spokesman for South Africa’s foreign ministry.

“It is most regrettable that it appears that the resettlement of South Africans to the United States under the guise of being ‘refugees’ is entirely politically motivated and designed to question South Africa’s constitutional democracy,” the spokesman, Chrispin Phiri, said in a statement.

He added that Afrikaners’ claims of discrimination “do not meet the threshold of persecution required under domestic and international refugee law.”

…The administration is preparing to help the Afrikaners find “temporary or longer-term housing” and “basic home furnishings, essential household items and cleaning supplies,” according to the memo. The administration is also planning to help the Afrikaners secure “groceries, weather-appropriate clothing, diapers, formula, hygiene products and prepaid phones that support the day-to-day well-being of households,” the memo said.

Advocates for refugees said the rapid mobilization to allow the Afrikaners to resettle highlighted the administration’s inaction on other refugees, even sometimes in the face of court orders.

“Thousands of refugees from across the globe remain stranded in limbo despite being fully vetted and approved for travel, including Afghan allies, religious minorities and other populations facing extreme violence and persecution,” said Timothy Young, a spokesman for Global Refuge, a resettlement agency. “We hope this development reflects a broader readiness to uphold the promise of protection for all refugees who meet longstanding legal standards, regardless of their country of origin.”

This week, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to lift the ban on refugees who were cleared for travel before Trump took office and to give them the opportunity to finally enter the country.

The rapid arrival of Afrikaners “flies in the face of the government’s claims that they aren’t able to process already-approved refugees, even after multiple courts have ordered them to do so immediately,” Melissa Keaney, a senior supervising attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project, said in a statement. “Thousands of refugees unlawfully stranded by President Trump’s refugee suspension are in limbo and are ready to restart their lives in the United States. There is no more time for excuses.”

Does anyone still not know that in the deranged MAGA world of Trumpism, compassion is transactional and humanity is color-coded? Refugees fleeing genocide in Darfur or Israeli airstrikes in Gaza are left to rot, while what we’re seeing now are white settlers from a far-right fantasy of South Africa fast-tracked to safety. This isn’t about national security— it’s about white supremacy draped in a flag. History will not be kind to regimes that slam the door on the desperate while rolling out the red carpet for their ideological kin. What begins with cruelty at the border never stays there.