A group of 59 South African refugees fleeing racial violence were welcomed by U.S. officials as they arrived in Washington D.C. Monday, prompting questions from the legacy media as to whether they deserve refugee status.

The refugees are white South Africans, including families with young children who are facing growing threats of discrimination and racial violence at the hands of the black majority in their country.

President Donald Trump referred to the the ongoing South African racial violence as a “genocide” and lamented that newspapers, television and the media “doesn’t even talk about it.”

In an executive order issued on Feb 7, Trump pledged that the U.S. would help to resettle “Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.”

According to NBC News, that executive order also ended U.S. aid and assistance to the government of South Africa over what Trump called “shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights.”

South African farmers and landowners have been especially under threat after a new land law went into effect specifically allowing white farmers to be targeted for having their land expropriated by government to be redistributed in “an equitable and just manner” according to South African president Cyril Ramaphosa.

Legacy media continues to shy away from words like “genocide” and “discrimination” when describing what is happening to white South African farmers and landowners.

Some media outlets have taken issue with the color of the refugees’ skin and claim that the expedited process for the South Africans is because they are white.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller defended the refugee program saying, “What’s happening in South Africa fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created. This is race-based persecution. The refugee program is not intended as a solution for global poverty, and historically, it has been used that way.”