(RNS) — The leader of Anglican churches in South Africa thanked the American head of the Episcopal Church for refusing to resettle white Afrikaners in the United States who have been deemed refugees by President Donald Trump’s administration, arguing the government’s justification for taking in members of the group is inaccurate.
In a letter sent to Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Sean W. Rowe on Thursday (May 15), the Most Rev. Thabo Makgoba, archbishop of Cape Town and head of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, lauded Rowe for announcing on Monday that his church would end its decades-long relationship with the U.S. government to resettle refugees. Rowe explained the decision was rooted in moral opposition to being asked to resettle white Afrikaners, especially as the U.S. refugee program has been mostly shut down since Trump took office in January.
In his message, Makgoba thanked Rowe for calling him ahead of the announcement and rejected the Trump administration’s arguments for accepting white Afrikaners, who the president has insisted are the target of genocide — a claim widely disputed by the South African government as well as faith leaders in the country.
“What the administration refers to as anti-white racial discrimination is nothing of the kind,” Makgoba’s letter read. “Our government implements affirmative action on the lines of that in the United States, designed not to discriminate against whites but to overcome the historic disadvantages Black South Africans have suffered.”
Makgoba argued white South Africans “remain the beneficiaries of apartheid” by “every measure of economic and social privilege,” noting that, despite the end of the apartheid regime, South Africa’s society remains deeply unequal.
“Measured by the Gini coefficient, which measures income disparity, we are the most unequal society in the world, with the majority of the poor Black, and the majority of the wealthy white,” Makgoba wrote. “While U.S. supporters of the South African group will no doubt highlight individual cases of suffering some members might have undergone, and criticize TEC for its action, we cannot agree that South Africans who have lost the privileges they enjoyed under apartheid should qualify for refugee status ahead of people fleeing war and persecution from countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Afghanistan.”
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau greets Afrikaner refugees from South Africa, May 12, 2025, at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The letter comes as the Episcopal Church — which is part of the Anglican Communion, a global church body that also incudes the Anglican Church of Southern Africa — has faced both praise and backlash for its decision as 59 white Afrikaners arrived in the U.S. this week. The church arm Episcopal Migration Ministries had long been one of 10 groups — seven of which are faith-based — that partner with the federal government to resettle refugees. It will now wind down its existing contracts by the end of this fiscal year.
Conservatives condemned the Episcopal Church’s move, with Vice President JD Vance, who has feuded with faith leaders over immigration policies, offering a one-word response to the news on the social media platform X on Monday: “Crazy.”
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly also condemned the decision, saying it “raises serious questions about (the church’s) supposed commitment to humanitarian aid.”
“President Trump has made it clear: refugee resettlement should be about need, not politics,” Kelly said in a statement.
Rowe defended the decision during an appearance with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday evening. Rowe said that Afrikaners appear to be the only refugees allowed into the country since Trump suspended the program in January, despite thousands of others seeking entry being locked in limbo. The prelate also appeared to reference that the Afrikaners were vetted over the course of months instead of the normal yearslong application process to become a refugee.
“I agree — it should be about need,” Rowe said on CNN. “As you’ve reported, look at the thousands of people fleeing war and violence. … People who have helped our military that are being left in camps on a daily basis, while white Afrikaners have been fast-tracked. … This is about people who have jumped the line.”
A State Department spokesperson did not to answer specific questions regarding the vetting process for Afrikaner refugees, saying instead, “We are unable to comment on individual cases, but eligible individuals are moving through the process of refugee resettlement.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which helps orchestrate resettlement, said the agency will “use current and available funding to resettle Afrikaner refugees” and has been coordinating their placement with “current grant recipients that receive Preferred Communities Program funding” — namely, the resettlement agencies that partner with the government.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also announced last month it would no longer renew cooperative agreements with the federal government regarding refugee resettlement, citing the government’s suspension of the program which has resulted in widespread layoffs across the various resettlement agencies.
The remaining five faith-based resettlement groups partnering with the government have indicated they intend to continue to resettle refugees allowed into the country, with at least two — Church World Service and World Relief — confirming to RNS this week that they will resettle small numbers of Afrikaners.
However, CWS, World Relief and other faith-based resettlement groups remain vocally critical of the government’s halting of the refugee program, with four filing two separate lawsuits against the government earlier this year.
On Thursday, Tim Young, a spokesperson for Global Refuge, formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said in an X post that among the plaintiffs in its ongoing lawsuit is a Christian refugee who fled to South Africa to escape violence in her home country, Congo. She was approved to travel to the U.S., but, unlike white Afrikaners, is now unable to enter the country.
“Her family is already in the U.S. eagerly awaiting her,” Young wrote. “She was approved to travel, but the refugee program was suspended and she can’t be with her grieving mother as they mourn the loss of her brother.”