Trump Official: Afrikaners Easily Assimilate

On Monday, Christopher Landau, the deputy secretary of state under President Donald Trump, addressed the media while welcoming over 50 Afrikaner refugees. He informed the BBC that one of the primary reasons Trump selected these refugees was their perceived ability to integrate seamlessly into American society. ‘Part of the criteria is ensuring that refugees do not pose any threat to our national security and that they can assimilate easily into our country,’ Landau stated.

The remark sparked outrage among commentators, who suggested that the term ‘assimilation’ was a euphemism for favoring white refugees. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, pointed out that Trump’s executive order on his first day in office aimed to restructure the refugee resettlement program. The order stated that the U.S. should only admit refugees who could ‘fully and appropriately assimilate into the United States.’ Reichlin-Melnick argued that for Trump, this meant prioritizing white refugees, specifically Afrikaners.

Former Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois, who left the Republican Party, echoed this sentiment. ‘Translation? ‘White.’ For Trump, it’s white refugees,’ he stated. National security expert Marcy Wheeler warned that this approach could backfire, potentially creating legal arguments for other refugees based on animus. She added, ‘He’s not hiding the white sheets.’

The Albuquerque Free Press highlighted the irony by posting an excerpt from the poem on the Statue of Liberty, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,’ and commenting, ‘as long as they’re white.’ Retired NBA player Etan Thomas agreed, asserting that Landau’s comment about assimilation was code for ‘because they are white.’

Albert Combrink, a pianist, sarcastically remarked, ‘They’re also so useless they couldn’t make white privilege work for them here.’ University of Connecticut journalism professor Mike Stanton added, ‘This guy puts the ‘a–’ in assimilate.’

In my opinion, the administration’s focus on ‘assimilation’ as a criterion for refugee acceptance is not only discriminatory but also hypocritical. It undermines the principles of inclusivity and diversity that the United States has long championed. The comments from Landau and the subsequent reactions highlight a troubling trend of racial bias in immigration policies, which should be addressed with transparency and fairness.