The newly arrived people are from the ethnic minority of Afrikaners, the group of whites who ruled South Africa during apartheid.

Hours after he took office, Trump shut down the refugee resettlement program, effectively ending a pathway for refugees to secure asylum in the United States and choking off all funding for refugee resettlement.

Trump has frozen refugee admissions and cut off resettlement funding, but he has made an exception for white South Africans, who he says are victims of racial discrimination.