The Episcopal Church rejected the Trump administration’s request for assistance, saying it would not help the 59 South African refugees that arrived in the U.S. on Monday.
The church’s presiding bishop, Sean Rowe, took it a step further and said the Episcopal Migration Ministries would be terminating its 40-year-old partnership with the U.S. government, according to a statement from the church published Monday.
“In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step,” Rowe’s statement read.
“Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government,” Rowe said.
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order largely suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, a program the church participated in, to control the immigration crisis created by the Biden administration.
“Then, just over two weeks ago, the federal government informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of our federal grant, we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government has classified as refugees,” Rowe said in his Monday statement.
