At least 60 South Africans have been cleared to relocate to the United States as President Donald Trump commenced resettlement plans for white farmers over claims of government-sponsored discrimination against them.
According to internal government documents, approximately 60 white farmers have been approved by the U.S. Department of State to be flown on a government-chartered plane to Dulles International Airport in Virginia where they will be received by federal and local officials next week Monday.
Mr Trump’s plan to relocate white farmers in South Africa began just a few days into his presidency in January when he accused the South African government of persecution of its white population after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a controversial Expropriation Bill into law.
The law provides the government the right to seize lands without compensation under certain conditions where it is “just and equitable and in the public interest,” which Mr Trump tagged a state-sponsored attempt to seize control of lands belonging to the country’s white population.
“South Africa is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly. It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention,” Mr Trump said in one of his posts on Truth Social condemning the expropriation law.
In response, Mr Trump immediately cut all financial aid to South Africa and subsequently directed the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to commence the process of relocating more than 2.7 million white farmers from South Africa to the United States, with the first batch now scheduled to arrive next week.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s action is expected to spark a series of racial debates over his choice to resettle South Africa’s white population on American soil despite intensified efforts from administration to deport millions of immigrants from predominantly non-white countries from the United States.
