During an interview on CNN on Saturday, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin spoke with CNN's Victor Blackwell about the asylum status given to Afrikaners the Trump Administration claims are facing genocide.
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00:00Let me start here. Despite the president's repeated reference, can we just start this
00:06conversation by agreeing that Afrikaners are not facing genocide?
00:11Absolutely not. First of all, I have to correct the facts, Victor. You said that no refugees
00:17were let in. Under President Donald Trump, since January 20th, 8,666 individuals have
00:24been granted asylum. Those people have faced persecution for their politics, persecution
00:29for the color of their skin, their religion. And that includes those 59 Afrikaners who came
00:35in this country last week who have faced racial violence at the hand of their own government.
00:40They've had their land seized because of the color of their skin. There's been over 140 laws
00:46enacted that are race-based and to discriminate against racial minorities. So I got to correct
00:52the facts where you're wrong, Victor, and you're wrong. Several things. President Ramaphosa
00:56says that although the law was signed in January that would give the government the purview to
01:04take the land, no land has been taken from Afrikaners. Also, that's President Ramaphosa.
01:11He'll be at the White House this week. Take it up with him. Also, the definition of genocide
01:16is aimed at extermination, right? And so although there is violence in South Africa,
01:24there's violence against black South Africans too. So when the president says that there is
01:29genocide, where is the evidence? The U.S. has not recognized officially genocide. The United
01:36Nations has not recognized genocide. And for the thousands of people who you say were let into
01:42this country who've been granted asylum, I'm talking under the refugee resettlement program,
01:47which the president froze by executive order early in his administration.
01:52Victor, can we take a pause and recognize the fact that you are defending race-based
01:57discrimination? You are defending race-based violence.
02:01I'm not defending race-based discrimination in any way. The president uses the term genocide.
02:07There is no genocide in South Africa. And frankly, it does a disservice to people in countries around
02:14the world who are facing genocide in the Congo, in Sudan, those who faced it in Rwanda and Bosnia
02:21and Cambodia. So when the president says that there's genocide in South Africa, it does not exist.
02:28We should probably just start with that truth.
02:31Okay. If you're going to allow me on your program, I'd like to speak.
02:34Again, we have invited, we have granted asylum to 8,666 individuals since January 20th, regardless
02:44of color or creed. It is quite frankly disturbing to me that members of the media, including people
02:51who are on this very network, are trying to whitewash the facts and whitewash the fact that these
02:57individuals have faced discrimination, racial violence, the seizure of their land based on nothing
03:03but their skin color alone. This is the United States of America, a land of opportunity,
03:08and we will help those who are facing persecution from the government of South Africa.
03:14So you clearly are not going to acknowledge there's no genocide in South Africa. What about the
03:21genocide in the Congo? Will there be this expedited path available to the Congolese and to the
03:31Sudanese who are facing actual genocide? Again, Victor, 8,666 individuals have been granted
03:39asylum. You have a specific number?