According to NPR's "On The Media" aired this evening, a delegation from South Africa was in Washington to gain support for recognition of their plight in their homeland under prejudice.
It's hard to see how the divide in perceptions came to be, but the TRMP administrators along with ol' baldy himself decided to treat them as an endangered persecuted minority. And allow them to settle in these United States. Which is actually quite far from what they wanted or were asking for.