President Donald Trump announced a proposal to expand citizenship to white South African farmers on Friday, citing what he claims is abuse at the hands of their government.
“Peasanctuaries from South Africa (with family!) who try to flee the country for security reasons will be invited to the United States on a rapid path to citizenship. This process will begin soon!” Trump posted to True Social Society.
However, legal experts say Trump is not the only one who is not capable of expanding citizenship to a group that is favorable.
“This administration is persistent in using executive orders to replace the functions of Congress,” Rosanna Berardi, managing partner at the immigration law firm, said in an interview. “To create any type of visa classification…it falls straight onto the shoulders of Congress.”
Berardi said the announcement is just another example of the Trump administration, which relies on executive orders that outweigh the power of the president.
“He has no authority to do this. The executive order can change policies, not laws,” she said, adding that the plan is very likely to face immediate legal challenges.
That view was echoed by Aaron Likelyn Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Council of Immigration. “One important thing to understand is that “there is no such thing as a rapid path to citizenship,” he wrote to Bruski. “The fastest thing is that you only have to have a green card for three years (not five) before you apply through marriage to a US citizen. Trump can't make a new path without Congress.”
The South African proposal is just one of several Trumps that appear to be violating the law.
Last month, immigration lawyers raised vigilance over Trump's plans to sell their “gold card” routes to citizenship, and sell citizenship to hyper-prominent foreign investors who appear to be unsupported by Congress. Berardi claims that only Congress has the authority to create new visa programs, and also said it is an overstep.
“There are a lot of case law that supports the fact that he doesn't have the authority to do so,” Berardi told the Salon.
In addition to that, the proposal also reveals that the Trump campaign's promise to shut down immigrants widely is not so pretty.
“For example, they want to end the temporary protected status of Venezuelans. They are talking about ending it for the Ukrainians, but at the same time, they say they want South Africans, but now we want the 'gold card'. I think this is a truly dangerous precedent for any country,” she said.
Berardi added that TPS also appears to be stretching with regard to white South Africans.
“TPS is usually reserved for countries where it is so obvious that it's not safe to be there. My understanding of the “crisis” of South Africa's no-quote Quote is that if you do, it only applies to a certain population,” she told the salon.
The farmers that Trump suggests are confiscating “lands and farms” by states, and are generally landowners who controlled the agricultural sector during apartheid and found new allies in the Second Trump administration. Many prominent Trump supporters like billionaires Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, as well as David Sachs, have deep roots in South Africa's apartheid.
The president went on to sign an executive order last month, opposing racial inequality and denounced “bad” actions to defend “ethnic Africans.” The order directed his administration to launch a refugee programme for “Africans in South Africa, victims of unfair racism.”
