LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Fifty-nine Afrikaners are now living in the United States as refugees. They're the first group of white South Africans to be granted refugee status by the Trump administration, even as resettlement for other refugees is on hold. NPR's Ximena Bustillo has the story.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: White South African families arrived at an airplane hangar at the Washington, D.C., area airport on Monday.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHRISTOPHER LANDAU: It makes me so happy to see you with our flag.
BUSTILLO: They were greeted by State Department Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LANDAU: We underscored for them that the American people are a welcoming and generous people.
BUSTILLO: The administration says these families who are descendants of Dutch settlers face the threat of violence because of their race. Here is President Trump.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We've essentially extended citizenship to those people to escape from that violence and come here.
BUSTILLO: The arrival of the families marks a stark shift in refugee policy for the federal government. These families got vetted in a matter of months. They were flown to the U.S. on a chartered flight, and they were greeted by U.S. officials. That's in contrast to refugees from other countries, whose complex resettlement process can take years. President Trump paused the U.S. refugee resettlement program on his first day in office, and that left stranded abroad thousands of people who had already been approved to travel to the U.S. That includes the brother and sister of Yasmin Aguilar.
YASMIN AGUILAR: My brother and sister are still not here like some other refugees who are in the pipeline for a long time and approved, waiting to travel and come to safety.
BUSTILLO: They are from Afghanistan and are now waiting in Pakistan to come to the U.S. Aguilar now works at a refugee resettlement agency in Idaho.
AGUILAR: There are many other families also waiting for their family members. Family reunification is a very important.
BUSTILLO: A federal judge ordered the government to restart the refugee program, at least for those already approved. But Landau, the deputy secretary of State, said whether the broader program will be reinstated is still under consideration. In the meantime, the administration said it plans to welcome more Afrikaner refugees in the coming months.
Ximena Bustillo, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
