Trump Administration Quietly Continues To Admit Unknown Number of White Afrikaner Refugees

Three faith-based refugee agencies sued the Trump administration to resume refugee admissions. In April, a U.S. district judge ruled that the government must continue providing refugee resettlement. The government filed a motion this week saying the court’s injunctions represent “excessive overreach.”

Many refugee agencies laid off hundreds of employees because of the Trump administration’s indefinite pause of the refugee program. Another faith-based refugee resettlement group run by U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also ended its government-supported program.

Ten Afrikaners are being resettled in North Carolina, a N.C. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said. The first three arrived in the U.S. on May 12; another seven on May 30.

Most settled into apartments in Raleigh, the state capital, furnished with help from Welcome House, a program of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina.

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein has declared June 20-26 “North Carolina Refugees Welcome Week,” in keeping with the annual June 20th celebration established by the United Nations to honor refugees.

Adam Clark, executive director of World Relief Durham, a faith-based agency, said at least 10 people on his staff have been let go. But the office remains open and is serving refugees that arrived just before Trump’s pause. It has not yet been asked to resettle Afrikaners.

“We’ll move forward for now just to make sure that the door can stay open for people from the world’s greatest crisis areas and for the current thousands of clients that will be penalized (if we close),” Clark said.

In the meantime, Clark said World Relief will celebrate refugees at Durham Central Park on Saturday (June 21) as part of Durham Refugee Day, a community-wide event that celebrates the contributions and cultures of our refugee and immigrant neighbors.

This article originally appeared here.