Race-baiting leftist cleric Al Sharpton has opposed Trump’s offer to welcome racially persecuted White South African farmers into the United States. South Africa recently signed the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, allowing the seizure and redistribution of White-owned land, in some cases, without compensation.
White South Africans are also frequently subjected to various racially targeted violent attacks solely due to their race. In 2022, a South African Equality Court ruled that “Kill the Boer – Kill the Farmer” was not hate speech, highlighting the systemic racism subjected to White South Africans.
“What’s happening in South Africa fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created. This is persecution based on a protected characteristic — in this case, race. This is race-based persecution,” said White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
However, Sharpton opposed the program that aims to help real victims of racial persecution by demanding due process, while still defending people who entered the country illegally without it.
“President Trump is saying to white Afrikaners of South Africa, ‘I’ll give you refugee status.’ So we’re bringing in white Afrikaners, who we don’t if they’re criminals, we don’t know whether the went through the legal process in South Africa, — but people right here in New York, we’re gonna assume they are all criminals, we’re gonna bring them out, and if the mayor wants to say ‘Wait a minute, let’s have due process,’ [Trump] is going to say ‘Lock him up.’”
The Trump administration is not “assuming” that the illegal immigrants to be deported have criminal backgrounds. Most are from prisons where they are serving sentences for various crimes including rape, murder, and burglary, in addition to being in the country illegally. Every illegal the left has used to try to appear sympathetic on this issue, such as the infamous “Maryland Dad,” has turned out to be a gang member or criminal.
Most Democratic mayors have denied ICE access to prisons to detain these convicted criminals and remove them from the country. For instance, the left criticized Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams for allowing ICE into the Rikers Island jail complex, proving that they did not consider having a criminal background as a disqualifying factor for staying in the United States.
Additionally, White South African farmers cannot leave their home country if they have pending arrests or criminal cases, especially in the heightened atmosphere of racial profiling. Similarly, they can apply for asylum while still in South Africa and be vetted without breaking a single law.
“The U.S. Embassy in Pretoria has been conducting interviews and processing pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order on Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa,” the State Department said. “The Department of State is prioritizing consideration for U.S. refugee resettlement of Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.”
During his first term, Trump had a similar program dubbed “Remain in Mexico” or formally Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) that allowed immigrants to apply for asylum without crossing the southern border. However, the Biden administration, which Sharpton strongly supported, reversed the program and allowed everybody into the country without due process.
“It is as blatantly of a double standard that one can get,” Sharpton inadvertently and accurately described himself and the left.
“What is the real policy gonna be? … Are we gonna have due process, or are we just gonna let everybody go, and can the president just give other people, blanket, ‘You’re refugees’? So what’s the difference, Mr. President, between a refugee and a guy who may be a criminal and may not be a criminal?”
Similarly, White South Africans will enter the country through official ports of entry and produce official documents for vetting. Trump also offered to “fast-track” their path to legal citizenship, not a blanket and indefinite illegal stay.
