Trump remaking refugee system to favor white and English-speaking people: report
President Donald Trump came under heavy criticism earlier this year for using the U.S. refugee resettlement program to take in white Afrikaners, based on far-right conspiracy theories of a "white genocide" in South Africa that are debunked by local police statistics and other data.
But this could be just the beginning, according to a new report by The New York Times.
New documents reveal Trump is planning to undertake "a radical overhaul of the U.S. refugee system that would slash the program to its bare bones while giving preference to English speakers, white South Africans and Europeans who oppose migration," wrote Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz — a change that would "transform a decades-old program aimed at helping the world’s most desperate people into one that conforms to Mr. Trump’s vision of immigration — which is to help mostly white people who say they are being persecuted while keeping the vast majority of other people out."
These plans were first reviewed in April and July, although the report says many of these ideas are still under consideration, with no firm deadline for when they will be approved or rejected.
One of the major changes, according to the report, would be to require any prospective refugee to take classes on “American history and values” and “respect for cultural norms.” It also advocates for giving refugee status to Europeans who support extreme far-right parties like Germany's AfD, which have faced some sanctions by various governments for expressing hate speech.
“It should come as no surprise that the State Department is implementing the priorities of the duly elected president of the United States,” said State Department spokesperson Thomas Pigott, adding, “This administration unapologetically prioritizes the interests of the American people.”
All of this comes at the same time that the Trump administration is seeking to put heavy restrictions on general immigration, as well as enact a mass deportation plan that has been criticized by experts as skipping proper legal process and has led to clashes and confrontations between federal law enforcement and concerned citizens in cities around the country.