America Turns Its Back on Refugees

America's refugee promise shrinks. The Trump administration plans to slash refugee admissions to 7,500 people. That is going to be one of the smallest ever. The low fact is the lowest ceiling in more than 40 years. According to the New York Times, most of those few slots will reportedly go to get this White South Africans framed as victims of unjust discrimination. That decision effectively halts resettlement for thousands of approved families. People from places like Sudan, Congo and Iran who spent years in camps waiting for safety. Critics call it a moral betrayal of America's legacy as a refuge for the persecuted. It's worth remembering who'd we lose if this had always been our policy. Albert Einstein, a refugee from Nazi Germany. Sergey Brin, the Google co founder, fled Soviet persecution. Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger, Andy Grill, Gloria Stepan, and even Steve Jobs father, a Syrian refugee. All built lives that reshaped America. The refugee camp has always been a mirror of our national values. Right now, that reflection is getting smaller and meaner. Okay, so this is an issue that is near and dear to my heart. Full disclosure. For many years, I worked with the United nations refugee organization, unhcr. I did all the media training and presentation training for them for a decade or so. I'm not currently working with them, in part because all their money's been taken away. But that's not why I'm talking about this. I've had the privilege of meeting a number of refugees and the things they've gone through to just survive and to try to get to another country. You're talking about people who are the most resilient people in the world. These are the winners. You know, it's bizarre to me. Someone like President Trump and Pete Hegseth are always talking, we want winners. We want to be winners for winners. These refugees, almost by definition, are the most resilient, strongest, most resourceful, better at saving, better at planning, trying to plan to get out of a country where their entire family could be destroyed and killed and their entire futures destroyed. You're really getting the cream of the crop. I hate to tell you that, but you really are. And now we're throwing it away. I mean, this. This is bizarre at so many levels. It's not just not letting people in. For university students and HB1 visas for top tech companies, that's harmful, too. But refugees are often the source of tremendous diversity. And, sorry, but diversity isn't always a bad thing. Diverse ideas, diverse talents, diverse drives, and people who hunger for America. They come here, they want to work hard, they want to create businesses. They want wealth. They really do want wealth. And that filters down to others in their community and their society. Again, do we really wish we could get in a time machine and prevent Steve Jobs father from coming from Syria to the United States? Would that be better? Now, it doesn't necessarily mean Apple would have been created in Syria. No, but it might mean it wouldn't be created at all. It might mean the United States. And looking at the Google co founders, it might mean the United States is just a pretty good place for technology. Kind of like Europe, kind of like China. Well, no, we are supreme. We are number one right now in part because of the brains that come here, sometimes through HB1 visas, sometimes through university students, sometimes through refugees. Now, the cap is going to go to 7,500, down from 125,000 under Biden. And if I said 75,000, I messed up, it's 7,500. It's a laughably small number. But to add insult to injury, the fact that so many white Africaners from South Africa are going to the front of the line. Look, there are a lot of Republicans who say, oh, you know, you, you Democrats, you're so quick to call racism. You know, you see something you don't like, everyone's a racist, racist, racist, racist. And you talk about racism so much, you have no credibility. And you call us white nationalists. That's ridiculous. Well, when you see something like this white African, of all the people in the world, all the refugees in the world fleeing from their lives, fleeing from tyranny, fleeing from dictators, sometimes chasing them with machetes, to suggest that white Afrikaners are some uniquely persecuted people group. I'm sorry, there's just no way you can look at that anyway, other than to say, trump in the corner. This will really piss off the liberals. Let's stick it to them. And it's white nationalism, I'm sorry, it's saying there's something unique and special about white people, that the minor inconvenience a white African, and I understand, like in every country, somebody can get killed occasionally. But the idea that the minor inconvenience of a white Africaner compares to the typical life experience of millions of refugees around the world trying to flee horrible, dangerous oppression is utterly ludicrous. This is a way for Trump, once again, to sort of show I believe in genetics and white racial purity, white superiority, and it's really just utterly bizarre and despicable. I mean, I've been to, I've been to South Africa, I've been a white person in South Africa. And I can tell you people were really nice to me. Why is that? Well, it's in part because still, in South Africa, white people have so much more wealth than anyone who's not white. So they're. They're walking around and kicking. Mr. Walker, may I carry your bag? It's not because I'm special. Nobody knew who I was. I was discriminated against in my favor for being white in South Africa. And yes, I'm not going to tell you I know every single nuance of South Africa just because I've been there and worked there. But I can tell you, anyone who tells you that white Afrikaners of South Africa should get a majority of the slots of refugees coming in the United States, that is. That is utterly crazy. There's just no way you can make that case without tacitly or overtly embracing white nationalism. That's really what it's about. It's about saying, hey, we're a country founded by white people. We like white people. We want more white people here. Enough of these people coming from Asia and Africa and brown places and South America. None of that. It's really saying, we want more white. And there is a word for it, a phrase. People don't like to be called this, but it is a phrase. White nationalism.