The Episcopal Church will withdraw from the US Refugee Admissions Program by the end of the federal fiscal year, citing a directive from the Trump administration to prioritize the resettlement of white South Africans.
In a letter to church members dated Monday, Presiding Bishop Rev. Sean Rowe said the Biden-era refugee program had effectively been gutted this year under President Donald Trump.
Rowe said resettlement agencies had been laying off staff after the program had been “essentially shut down.”
According to the bishop, the federal government recently informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of its grant, it would be expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa who were recently classified as eligible for refugee status.
Row said the church would no longer participate in the program.
“In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step,” Rowe told members of the church. “Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal
The bishop said the directive came just over two weeks ago and characterized the decision to prioritize white South Africans as “highly unusual.”
He noted that other vulnerable populations—including Christians facing persecution and those who supported US military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan had not been granted entry in recent months.
“It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years,” Rowe said, adding he was “saddened and ashamed.”
The Washington Post reported that around 50 South African refugees arrived in Washington for resettlement on Monday. Trump denied that their skin color played a role in their refugee status and accused South Africa’s government of a “genocide.”
“Farmers are being killed,” he said. “They happen to be White. Whether they’re White or Black, makes no difference to me. But White farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.”