By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Episcopal Church’s migration service said it will refuse a federal government directive to help resettle white South Africans granted refugees status.
A group of 59 white South Africans has been welcomed as “refugees” by the Trump administration.
Their arrival comes amid an outcry over the White House’s current campaign of immigrant arrests and mass deportations.
“Welcome to the land of the free,” US Deputy Secretary of State Christoph Landau said as he greeted the group.
“I want you all to know that you are really welcome here and that we respect what you have had to deal with these last few years,” Landau told the group of Afrikaners, many of them holding US flags.
The Trump administration has also falsely accused the South African government of seizing land belonging to white farmers.
The claim refers to a new land expropriation law, similar to those in other countries, that aims to make it easier for the state to expropriate land without compensation if it’s in the public interest. No land has been expropriated under the law without compensation.
Trump, who has already canceled foreign aid to South Africa, has said he plans to bring up the issue when he speaks with the country’s leaders next week.
In a letter sent to members of the church, the Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe — the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church — said that two weeks ago, the government “informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of our federal grant, we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government has classified as refugees.”
The request, Rowe said, crossed a moral line for the Episcopal Church, which is part of the global Anglican Communion, which boasts among its leaders the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a celebrated and vocal opponent of apartheid in South Africa.
“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 said. “Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the US federal government.”
South Africa’s government has vehemently denied allegations of discriminatory treatment of its white minority residents.
“It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years,” Rowe said. “I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country.”
He also said many refugees, including Christians, are victims of religious persecution and are now denied entry.
He said the church would find other ways to serve immigrants, such as those already in this country and those stranded overseas.
The move marks the end of a ministry-government partnership that, for nearly four decades, has served nearly 110,000 refugees from countries, including Ukraine, Myanmar and Congo, Rowe said.