The status of the refugees will be a point of contention when President Trump meets the leader of South Africa at the White House on Wednesday.

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.

The South African government said the U.S. allegations that Afrikaners are being persecuted are "completely false."