During a tense Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio faced sharp criticism from Democrats over the Trump administration’s decision to admit a group of white South African refugees. The debate intensified when Rubio accused Senator Tim Kaine of objecting to the refugees based on their race. “I’m not the one arguing that, apparently you are because you don’t like the fact that they’re white and that’s why they’re coming,” Rubio said.

The clash began when Kaine challenged the administration’s justification for accepting the Afrikaners, a white minority in South Africa, as refugees, calling the State Department’s description of “government-sponsored racial discrimination” against them “specious.”
Kaine questioned the consistency of the refugee program’s standards, asking, “Can you have a different standard based upon the color of somebody’s skin? Would that be acceptable?”
Rubio pushed back, maintaining that the U.S. has broad discretion in its immigration decisions. “The United States has a right to pick and choose who they allow into the United States,” he stated before Kaine cut in.
Kaine pressed the issue again, “Based on the color of somebody’s skin?”
Rubio shot back, “You’re the one that’s talking about the color of their skin, not me. These are people whose farms were burned down and they were killed because of the color of their skin.”
The controversy stems from the recent arrival of under 60 Afrikaner refugees in the U.S. on May 12. President Donald Trump had previously spoken out about what he called the “genocide that’s taking place” against white farmers in South Africa.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau greeted the refugees—among them families with small children—at Dulles International Airport, emphasizing the threats they faced back home. “They were really subject to very serious, egregious, and targeted threats, and we wish them well in their journey in the United States,” Landau told Breitbart News. “We underscored for them that the American people are a welcoming and generous people, and we underscore the importance of assimilation into the United States, which is one of the very important factors that we look to in refugee admissions and through this resettlement program for these folks who were vetted in South Africa.”
Kaine raised further objections, noting, “Now we’re creating a special pathway for white Afrikaner farmers in a country governed by a unity government that includes the Afrikaner parties.”
He continued pressing Rubio: “Would you agree, Mr. Secretary, that if we’re interpreting the phrase ‘a well-founded fear of persecution’, we should apply that standard evenhandedly?”
Rubio replied, “I think we should apply it in the national security interest of the United States.”
He added, “The United States has the right to choose who it allows in and to prioritize that choice.”
When Kaine repeated his question—“And should that be applied evenhandedly?”—Rubio firmly responded, “Our foreign policy does not require evenhandedness.”
Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who had previously led a delegation to El Salvador advocating on behalf of a controversial asylum seeker accused of domestic violence and gang affiliation, also took aim at Rubio.
“I regret voting for you,” Van Hollen told him.
Rubio didn’t miss a beat: “Your regret for voting for me confirms I’m doing a good job,” he replied.

{Matzav.com}