The South African government detained and released two US government officials working in South Africa on a short-term assignment as part of the Trump administration’s plan to admit Afrikaners into America, secretly because it went against President Cyril Ramaphosa’s policy not to admit Afrikaner refugees, multiple sources informed The Chronicle.
The episode seemed to signal an elevation in the already strained relations between the United States and South Africa, whose government has dismissed as false a central tenet of the Trump administration’s campaign to help White South Africans emigrate as refugees. It also caught a few of the hiccups and obstacles that American personnel have encountered in the administration’s extraordinary push for Afrikaners.
It is not clear why the American workers were asked about it. State Department officials were serving in Kenya on New Year’s Day with Kenyan colleagues when the attack occurred, according to a refugee resettlement partner, Church World Service.
The South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs said in a statement to CNN that it carried out an operation at a refugee application processing center after immigration violations by Kenyan citizens inside the facility.
The presence of foreigners who seemed to act at the behest of illegal workers clearly raised intent and diplomatic protocol issues,” the South African statement said.
BREAKING: The Anti-White Racist South African Govt Raided A US Refugee Facility & Detained US Staff Processing “White Afrikaner Refugees,” Applying For Asylum In The US.@statedeptspox Tommy Pigott Said The US Is Seeking “Immediate Clarification” & EXPECTS FULL COOPERATION. pic.twitter.com/dEP2Mn5wuf
— John Basham (@JohnBasham) December 17, 2025
“The Department of International Relations and Cooperation has formally approached the United States of America and Kenya to extend full diplomatic support as required by international law, given that Ms. Maalim Naadal Jabes is a South African citizen.
Church World Service, which said it had sought guidance from South African legal counsel before the team’s trip to the region, “to ensure their activities were allowable under the terms of their visas.”
“CWS has provided USRAP operations throughout Africa for more than 30 years and operates in full compliance with all applicable local laws and regulations,” the organization said in a statement, saying that its staff had traveled back to Kenya.
On Tuesday, the US government “is seeking immediate clarification from the South African government” and that it expects “full cooperation and accountability,” State Department principal deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott told CNN on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, a Trump administration official said the US has “worked to operate the refugee program within the bounds of law, and South Africa has committed on multiple occasions to not intervene in our operations — unfortunately we have now seen that interference.”
US President Donald Trump defended his administration’s proposal to resettle Afrikaners in the US with a comment on “how a genocide is taking place” in South Africa, and that “White farmers are being brutally killed and their land confiscated”.
South African officials have vehemently denied such allegations. CNN has looked into claims of White “genocide” in South Africa, and found no substantiation for the accusations.
On and off throughout the year, the Trump administration has been undertaking what are called circuit rides to South Africa for interviews with Afrikaners who might be accepted into the United States. That is handled by regular USCIS staff members who process refugees.
This year, the US announced an annual quota of 7,500 refugees—predominantly White South Africans—down from last year’s cap of 125,000 people and one that excluded some of the most vulnerable populations in the world. All refugees had been shut out of the US except for White South Africans during Trump’s second term.
It emerged this week that South African immigration officials visited an office in the country where the US was interviewing Afrikaner applicants for asylum. South African officials also briefly questioned two American government employees and briefly detained Kenyans working with the State Department, sources said. All were released. The US is dealing with partners on the ground as it processes admissions).
Onineku, an organisation which works with the US to help the afrikaners get October 2015 X “URGENT AF ONLY fam. RAIDED US tycoon who ran SA satellite offices raided again by authorities The unnamed US bureaucrat operates vehicle management and insurance agency companies.
Seven Kenyan nationals were arrested and ordered to be deported, South Africa’s Home Affairs department said. Now they will not be allowed back into South Africa for five years.
“Seven Kenyan nationals were also found working during the operation without having been issued with work permits as provided under the employment act,” the statement said.
In May, Trump received his South African counterpart, President Cyril Ramaphosa, in the Oval Office. Trump used the meeting to amplify his far-fringe claims — which he has been peddling for months now — that white farmers in South Africa are having their land taken from them and they are being slaughtered in record numbers.
Trump’s obsessive belief that White South Africans are enduring persecution is nothing new: at various points during his first term, he talked about wanting to intervene on behalf of white farmers booted off their land.
The US has also recently placed aid to the country on ice, expelled its ambassador and didn’t invite South Africa to any G20 events in the US for the first time since them being held; that’s more than 20 years.
