[Episcopal News Service] When a small group of white South Afrikaners, whom the Trump administration has deemed refugees, arrive in the United States this week, they will be assisted by some nonprofit agencies that historically have contracted with the U.S. government to do that resettlement work.
Episcopal Migration Ministries will not be one of them.
The Episcopal Church, according to a letter issued May 12 by Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, has declined the Trump administration’s request to participate in the fast-tracked immigration of Afrikaners, part of the white minority in South Africa that formerly governed the country until the end of the extreme racial segregation of apartheid in 1994. EMM has not assisted any new arrivals since early this year, when the Trump administration halted the broader federal resettlement program indefinitely.
Reasons for not settling the Afrikaners
Millions of people worldwide are identified by the United Nations as refugees escaping war, famine or religious persecution in their home countries. EMM has resettled nearly 110,000 such refugees over nearly 40 years, but “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” of assisting the Trump administration in resettling Afrikaners, Rowe said after consulting with Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town.
Instead, The Episcopal Church will formally end all federal resettlement work when its contract expires at the end of this fiscal year, on Sept. 30. EMM, after further reducing its staff, will continuing operating as a church-based ministry to serve the needs of refugees already in the U.S., as well as asylum-seekers and other migrants.
EMM had been one of 10 nongovernmental agencies, many of them associated with religious denominations, that facilitated refugee resettlement through the federal program created in 1980. Refugees traditionally have been among the most thoroughly vetted of all immigrants and often waited for years overseas for their opportunity to start new lives in the United States.
The Afrikaners, about 50 of whom were scheduled to begin arriving in the United States as early as May 12, were screened and cleared for travel in the three months since Trump signed a February 7 executive order accusing South Africa’s Black-led government of racial discrimination against the white minority group. Afrikaners number about 3 million in a country of 63 million people.
“It has been painful to watch one group of refugees [the Afrikaners], 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 in his letter.
Other refugees blocked
When Trump took office, some refugees who had waited their turn to be resettled and received clearance to travel to the United States had their travel plans revoked after the president signed his executive order halting the resettlement program. Trump said the United States “lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities” despite successful efforts by EMM and the other resettlement agencies to ramp up their resettlement operations during the Biden administration.
Until the program was suspended, the United States had opened its doors to up to 125,000 refugees a year, with the largest numbers originating from the Congo, Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela and Burma. Many had fled war-torn regions like Sudan, while others came from countries where citizens now face persecution for their past support of the United States military.
“I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country,” Rowe said. “I also grieve that victims of religious persecution, including Christians, have not been granted refuge in recent months.”
The federal refugee resettlement program has long had bipartisan support. EMM and the other contracted agencies have provided a range of federally funded services for the first months after the refugees’ arrivals, including English language and cultural orientation classes, employment services and school enrollment, and they helped covered costs such as food and rent as the refugees began to establish new lives and contribute to their adopted communities.
Wind down of EMM services
Trump’s executive order suspending the program was one of the first actions he took after returning to office on January 20, 2025. In the order, he claimed without evidence that refugees had become a costly burden on American communities.
On January 31, EMM responded by announcing plans to wind down its core resettlement operations and lay off 22 employees while shifting its focus to other efforts. “While we do not know exactly how this ministry will evolve in our church’s future, we remain steadfast in our commitment to stand with migrants and with our congregations who serve them,” the Rev. Sarah Shipman, EMM’s director, said at the time.
Trump’s order gave no indication when, if ever, the congressionally enacted program would resume, other than “such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”
Less than three weeks later, the president’s executive order on South Africa pledged “humanitarian relief” to Afrikaners but it did not specify how the interests of the United States would be served by granting refugee status to white South Africans and expediting their resettlement in the United States.
The executive order accuses the South African government of “rights violations” toward Afrikaners, specifically a law allowing the seizure of property without compensation in certain circumstances. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected such claims.
“We should challenge the completely false narrative that our country is a place in which people of a certain race or culture are being targeted for persecution,” Ramaphosa said in a March message.
Needs of refugees globally
Global resettlement needs have only increased in recent years. The refugees who are resettled in the United States typically are fleeing war, persecution and other hardships in their home countries. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates there are more than 32 million such refugees worldwide, and tens of millions more have been displaced within their home countries.
While invoking civil rights to justify Afrikaners’ resettlement in the United States, the Trump administration’s continued suspension of all other refugee resettlement has effectively ended what previously had been a lifeline for millions of people deprived of civil rights in other nations, often due to religious persecution. Many Vietnamese refugees, for example, are members of that country’s minority Christian community and have fled to refugee camps rather than face threats of imprisonment or execution for their faith.
“As Christians, we must be guided not by political vagaries, but by the sure and certain knowledge that the kingdom of God is revealed to us in the struggles of those on the margins,” Rowe said in his May 12 letter. “Jesus tells us to care for the poor and vulnerable as we would care for him, and we must follow that command. Right now, what that means is ending our participation in the federal government’s refugee resettlement program and investing our resources in serving migrants in other ways.”
Rowe added that EMM will continue to serve migrants through diocesan partnerships, collaboration with other Anglican provinces around the world, and through local outreach to refugees who are continuing to get settled in American communities. “You can contribute to this new work by making a donation on the Episcopal Migration Ministries website,” Rowe said.
Reaction of other agencies
Other refugee resettlement agencies, while agreeing to help receive the Afrikaners, have criticized the Trump administration for its selective resettlement polices.
“We are concerned that the U.S. government has chosen to fast-track the admission of Afrikaners, while actively fighting court orders to provide life-saving resettlement to other refugee populations who are in desperate need of resettlement,” Rick Santos, president and CEO of Church World Service, said in a May 9 statement.
“By resettling this population, the government is demonstrating that it still has the capacity to quickly screen, process and depart refugees to the United States,” Santos said. “It’s time for the administration to honor our nation’s commitment to the thousands of refugee families it abandoned with its cruel and illegal executive order.”
Shipman, the EMM director, issued a statement later May 12 amplifying Rowe’s letter and expressing “our grief at these developments.”
“At the same time, we want to acknowledge the profound legacy of this ministry,” Shipman said. “Looking ahead, we will continue to support dioceses and ministry networks around the church in responding to global migration and protecting the rights of all migrants. Though our work will take new forms, we will persist in our efforts to serve the most vulnerable.”
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.
Episcopal Migration Ministries
Episcopal Migration Ministries is a key program within the Division of Public Policy, Partnership and Witness. Through Episcopal Migration Ministries, we support dioceses and ministry networks around the church in responding to global migration, serving communities, and protecting the rights of all migrants.
Dioceses throughout The Episcopal Church work together and in partnership to serve migrants from sending and receiving communities. We offer a range of services and ministries and recognize the complex factors leading to migration. In partnership with churches around the Anglican Communion, we educate and advocate for conditions where no one is forced to migrate, and if they must, they are able to do so with dignity.
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