Last week, the Monitor reported that, over the past six months, all but three of the 4,499 refugees let into the United States were from South Africa. The Trump administration deems white Afrikaners (descendants mainly of 17th-century Dutch settlers) to be refugees, claiming they are subject to government-sponsored, race-based discrimination in majority-Black South Africa.

This week, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa named a new ambassador to Washington: Roelf Meyer, who is not only an Afrikaner but was also a member of the former apartheid government. The two men worked closely together in the early 1990s to negotiate their country’s transition from white-minority rule to multiracial democracy.

Mr. Meyer “will represent South Africa very well,” Mr.…