US spends billions to deport as it widens welcome for white refugees
Almost every refugee admitted this year was white South African, even as administration strips protection from Haitians and others
WASHINGTON (MNTV) — The Trump administration is drawing accusations of a racial double standard in immigration policy, devoting billions of dollars to arresting and deporting Black and brown immigrants while reportedly moving to expand financial support for newly resettled white South African refugees.
The contrast is stark in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
The United States, long one of the world’s leading refugee destinations, admitted just 10,258 people through its resettlement program — and, apart from three Afghans, all were reportedly white South Africans.
Over the same period, the administration moved to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Haitians, exposing many to detention and deportation despite continuing violence and collapse in Haiti.
It is also reportedly considering doubling initial resettlement aid to $4,500 per person — assistance that has historically been kept minimal even for people fleeing war and persecution.
The disparity extends beyond money to the legal protections attached to each status. Refugees admitted through formal resettlement enter through a protected legal process and can pursue permanent residency and eventually citizenship, and may qualify for refugee cash assistance.
TPS holders — such as Haitians who have lived, worked, and paid taxes in the U.S. for years — receive protection from removal but no path to permanent status, and are excluded from many federal aid programs. Ending that protection can leave long-settled families facing deportation to countries the government itself had deemed unsafe.
Expert historians say the pattern echoes a long U.S. history in which humanitarian protection tracked race — from early-20th-century policies that shielded European immigrants, to the racialized “welfare queen” mythology, to welfare and refugee rules built around “self-sufficiency” that shift blame for poverty onto individuals.
The disparity, they argue, reflects not competing budget priorities but a system distributing protection by race and politics.
The core question, advocates say, is not how much Washington spends, but whose security and dignity it considers worth protecting.
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