American officials welcomed a group of 59 white South Africans at Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday afternoon, in a ceremony greeting them as refugees based on the argument that they are fleeing discrimination and racially based violence in their home country.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim this week that there is an unreported “genocide” happening against white farmers in South Africa was his harshest accusation yet against a country he has moved to punish over a range of issues.