A major taxpayer-funded church group has just pulled out of the U.S. refugee resettlement program—and the reason says everything about how politicized immigration has become.
In a stunning move, Episcopal Migration Ministries announced that it will no longer participate in refugee placements after the Biden-era refugee program, now under President Trump’s leadership, began accepting white South African refugees, many of whom are facing deadly violence and persecution in their homeland.
“Just over two weeks ago, the federal government informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that… we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa,” wrote Presiding Bishop Sean W. Rowe in a letter dated May 12.
“In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation… we are not able to take this step.”
In short, because these refugees are white, they’re being rejected by the very groups who claim to fight for justice, safety, and compassion.
Instead of helping these vulnerable families, the Episcopal group says it will completely walk away from the refugee program by the end of the fiscal year.
“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 added.
“I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance… are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The statement is as revealing as it is political. They’re not walking away because they oppose the refugee program—they’re walking away because the refugees are white.
President Trump’s February executive order redirected the refugee program to prioritize those who are genuinely fleeing violence and oppression—including Afrikaner farmers in South Africa, who are regularly targeted with violent attacks and facing land seizure without compensation.
On May 12, 49 white South African refugees landed at Dulles Airport in Virginia. Many of them were farmers and families who’ve faced violent threats, home invasions, and government-supported expropriation.
An additional 70,000 white South Africans—many living in poverty—have applied to join the refugee program.
What should have been a moment of compassion has instead been met with outrage from the Left and globalist media outlets. Progressive groups, who claim to support “diversity” and “human rights,” are suddenly furious that these white Christians are being given a chance at safety and a better life.
“My read of this is that the administration is trolling the left,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, speaking to Breitbart News.
“Admitting these few dozen Afrikaners is kind of trolling to get the left to find one immigrant, one refugee group that they don’t want… So [Trump’s trolling] is already working.”
And it is.
The Episcopal group would rather quit their refugee resettlement efforts than help white South Africans fleeing violence. This exposes the deeper agenda behind many left-wing organizations: it’s not about helping people—it’s about identity politics.
For decades, South Africa’s white farming community has lived under increasing threat. Once part of a stable agricultural economy, these families are now treated as enemies by radical politicians who openly call for their land and even their deaths.
“As a minority group, a deeply hated minority group, they will never achieve or exercise any political power,” said Krikorian.
“The hostile black majority has left them with only two alternatives: ‘the suitcase or the coffin.’”
That’s not an exaggeration. Some South African politicians have openly repeated slogans like “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer.” Yet Western elites and international media have mostly stayed silent—or worse, justified the violence as “reparations.”
While the Episcopal Church laments “preferential treatment,” the reality is that millions of migrants from foreign cultures have already been resettled in the U.S. over the last few decades—many from Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Burma, and Syria.
And guess who benefits?
Not working-class Americans, who face job competition and shrinking wages. Instead, it’s big corporations and left-wing bureaucrats, who depend on the flood of low-wage labor and taxpayer-funded resettlement programs.
Episcopal Migration Ministries, which resettled over 100,000 migrants since 1988, openly promotes progressive causes like “Pride Month” and boasts about pushing “diversity” in local U.S. communities—paid for by you, the taxpayer.
“This year, our marking of [World Refugee Day] will be even more special as we also join in celebration of Pride Month… through our Rainbow Initiative,” they wrote in a recent announcement.
Meanwhile, Americans are losing wages, housing affordability, and job opportunities. It’s a system that works for elites, not for citizens.
Under President Trump, the refugee inflow has been frozen. The original 2025 Biden-era cap of 125,000 migrants was scrapped. In its place, Trump is focusing on investing in American innovation and boosting wages for working Americans.
“Cheap labor is a drug that too many American firms got addicted to,” said Vice President JD Vance in a May speech to investors.
“Real innovation makes us more productive… It boosts our standard of living. It strengthens our workforce and the relative value of its labor.”
It’s a pro-worker, pro-America strategy that shifts the focus from endless foreign resettlement to investing in American citizens and communities.
Just a few years ago, a Mississippi farm came under fire for only hiring white South African farmworkers using the H-2A visa program, even though the area is overwhelmingly Black.
“I never did imagine that it would come to the point where they would be hiring foreigners, instead of people like me,” said one former Black farmworker.
But that’s what the system rewards—cheaper foreign labor over American workers, regardless of race.
Now, many on the Left want to give those foreign workers citizenship in exchange for low-wage jobs, while rejecting white Christian farmers trying to escape real violence in Africa.
It’s backward. And President Trump is the first in decades to say: “Enough.”
