WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration plans to admit up to 10,000 more white South African refugees into the United States in the coming months, arguing that their status as Afrikaners has left them open to discrimination and persecution at home.The South African government has said the Trump administration’s claims are baseless. But President Donald Trump has insisted the white Afrikaner minority has faced systematic discrimination and violence, particularly attacks against its farming communities — prompting him to cut off aid to South Africa, engage in a fiery Oval Office confrontation with its president and boycott last year’s Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg.The State Department told Congress on Monday that it will admit up to 17,500 Afrikaners — a group of white South Africans descended mainly from Dutch settlers — as refugees through the fiscal year that ends in September. The administration initially indicated that it would only admit up to 7,500, mostly Afrikaners, in that time period, but said Monday that “unforeseen developments in South Africa created an emergency refugee situation.”
The administration’s plans were outlined in an emergency State Department notice sent to Congress on Monday evening and obtained by The Associated Press. CNN first reported the new refugee levels.
