Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau And Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Troy Edgar After Meeting with Newly Arrived Afrikaner Refugees

MODERATOR: So first, Deputy Secretary Landau is going to give a few remarks. Good to go?

DEPUTY SECRETARY LANDAU: Thank you very much. And thanks, ladies and gentlemen, for coming out here this afternoon. The Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security and I just met with this first flight of South African refugees to arrive in our country, pursuant to the President’s Executive Order about certain egregious actions in South Africa. The President made it clear that Afrikaners in South Africa who are the victims of unjust racial discrimination would be welcome to come to the United States, and he is now delivering on that promise.

The Deputy Secretary and I just spoke to some of the folks who arrived on this flight, and they tell quite harrowing stories of the violence that they faced in South Africa that was not redressed by the authorities, by the unjust application of the law. The United States, as we were proud to say, has – stands for equal justice under law and the fair and impartial application of the law.

And again, this is a group that has not experienced that and has, to the contrary, experienced violence and really fear for their lives in South Africa. They were really subject to very serious, egregious, and targeted threats, and we wish them well in their journey in the United States. We underscored for them that the American people are a welcoming and generous people, and we underscored the importance of assimilation into the United States, which is one of the very important factors that we look to in refugee admissions and through this resettlement program for these folks who were vetted in South Africa. And we’re sending a clear message that the United States really rejects the egregious persecution of people on the basis of race in South Africa, and we welcome these people to the United States and to a new future.

Thank you very much.

DEPUTY SECRETARY EDGAR: Yeah. Good afternoon. I’m Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar. First of all, I just want to thank President Trump and Secretary Noem for the opportunity to come down here and welcome these folks from South Africa. I also am very grateful for Deputy Secretary Landau. We do a lot of work together to try to further the objectives of the President, and this has been a very important day.

It was great to greet these folks that came in, to hear their stories, to hear what they’ve been through. This is a real situation. These people have went through a lot of stuff, and we’re just grateful to have them in the U.S.

As many of us know, the United States has a long history of bringing people over. My wife was an Iranian, came over during the regime change in the ‘70s, and she’s now here, speaks five languages – a school teacher.

We think the American dream is possible for these South Africans. We’re super excited for them. And the deputy secretary and myself have given these people our personal information and said anything we could do to help them be successful – we just want to wish them the best. We thank you guys for coming down here and celebrating this with us. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Deputy Secretary, a couple questions. First Breitbart.

QUESTION: Hi. Thank you for your time. What are some examples of racial discrimination or attacks that initially caught the eye of the Trump Administration? And is there a pathway to American citizenship for these refugees?

DEPUTY SECRETARY LANDAU: Sure. Thank you for that question. I think if you look at the executive order that the President issued back on February 7th of this year, it talks about the terrible Expropriation Act that was enacted last year in South Africa that allows for the expropriation without compensation of farmland. A fair number of these refugees were farmers who’ve farmed this particular land for generations and now face the threat not only of expropriation but also of direct violence.

We had a chance to speak to them about – many of these folks have experience with threatening invasions of their homes, their farms, and a real lack of interest or success of the government in doing anything about this situation as well, obviously, as several very vociferous South African politicians repeating things like “kill the Boer, kill the Afrikaner.” And these people have been living under a shadow of violence and terror for some time now. Thank you.

MODERATOR: And now BBC.

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you very much. I just wanted to know, there are many —

DEPUTY SECRETARY LANDAU: I can’t hear you that well. Sorry.

QUESTION: Sorry. From the BBC. There are many people who are – who fit the criteria of seeking help, who are fleeing persecution – Afghans, for example, and they live in a country run by the Taliban. But they’re being denied refugee status. So I’m wondering why has such an exception been made for the Afrikaners, especially when the South African Government says they’re not in danger? And are you going to open up the Refugee Resettlement Program for others?

DEPUTY SECRETARY LANDAU: Thank you for that question. I think you may recall that on the President’s first day in office, on January 20th of this year, we issued an executive order that paused U.S. refugee programs that had been going at record levels under the prior administration and had brought in people that we were not sure had been carefully vetted for national security issues and put a pause on the Refugee Admission Program in general. That pause, of course, was subject from the very beginning to exceptions where it was determined that this would be in the interest of the United States. One of – some of the criteria are making sure that refugees did not pose any challenge to our national security and that they could be assimilated easily into our country.

So the President on February 7th issued an executive order about the egregious conditions in South Africa, and all of these folks who’ve just come in today have been carefully vetted, pursuant to our refugee standards. And whether or not the broader refugee programs for other people around the world will be lifted is still an ongoing consideration. But again, the President has recognized the dire situation of this particular group of people. And again, they went through the process.

It is not surprising, unfortunately, that a country from which refugees come does not concede that they are refugees. And unfortunately, the South African Government has not done what we feel is appropriate to guarantee the rights of these citizens to live in peace with their fellow South Africans, which is why under our domestic law they were given refugee status.

Thank you very much.

MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. Thank you very much.