WASHINGTON, D.C. —Congressman Troy E. Nehls (R-TX-22) introduced the Asylum for Farmers and Refugees in Crisis and Necessary Emigration Resettlement (AFRIKANER) Act, which would give Priority-2 refugee status to residents of South Africa who are members of the Afrikaner ethnic minority group that have suffered persecution, or have a well-founded fear of persecution, on account of their race, ethnicity, or ancestry. The AFRIKANER Act would also give Priority-2 refugee status to the spouses, children, and parents of these individuals so long as they are residents of South Africa.
Recently, the Republic of South Africa (South Africa) enacted the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, which enables the government to forcefully confiscate Afrikaners’ private property without compensation. Afrikaners are rural farmers of European descent that makeup seven percent of South Africa’s population.
On February 2, 2025, President Donald J. Trump spoke out against this law and the treatment of the Afrikaner population, calling it “a massive human rights violation.” In response to the enactment of the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, on February 7, 2025, President Trump took action to cut off all aid and assistance to South Africa and directed the United States to “promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.”
“The Afrikaner population in South Africa has been experiencing unjust racial discrimination, and the situation continues to get worse by the day,” said Congressman Nehls. “President Trump is right. How Afrikaners are being treated is a massive human rights violation. My bill will offer Afrikaners a pathway to the United States to flee the persecution they’ve lived through initiated by their own government.”
