The Trump administration has decided to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for immigrants from Myanmar, ending deportation safeguards for roughly 4,000 nationals who have lived legally in the United States under the humanitarian program since the 2021 military coup. The move marks the latest step in a sweeping rollback of TPS designations for multiple crisis-affected countries.
Myanmar Nationals to Lose TPS in 2025
TPS grants protection from deportation and allows recipients to work legally in the United States. It is reserved for nationals of countries facing armed conflict, natural disasters or extraordinary conditions that make return unsafe. Myanmar was added to the list after the February 2021 coup plunged the country into a protracted civil war, mass displacement and nationwide human rights abuses.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the administration’s review concluded that Myanmar has made “improvements in governance and stability,” citing the junta’s announcement that “free and fair elections” would begin in December and the lifting of a state of emergency in July.
She acknowledged, however, that the nation continues to grapple with “humanitarian challenges due in part to continued military operations against armed resistance.”
Rights Groups Denounce the Decision
Human rights organizations sharply rejected the administration’s assessment, arguing that conditions in Myanmar remain catastrophic and that the government’s claims of stabilization are misleading.
“Homeland Security’s misstatements in revoking TPS for people from Myanmar are so egregious that it is hard to imagine who would believe them,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. He noted that while the junta technically lifted the state of emergency, it simultaneously imposed a new one in dozens of townships, along with martial law across nine states and regions.
The United Nations has also pushed back. UN human rights chief Volker Türk described the notion of credible elections as “unfathomable” under current conditions.
“How can they even be conducted when considerable parts of the country are actually not in anyone’s control, and with the military being party to the conflict and having suppressed its population for years?” he said.
Conditions in Myanmar: Still One of the World’s Worst Crises
Myanmar’s political and security environment remains deeply unstable nearly four years after the coup. The military regime has lost significant territory to ethnic armed organizations and pro-democracy resistance forces. Large portions of the country are effectively war zones, with villages burned, civilians displaced, telecommunications disrupted and humanitarian access severely restricted.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s most prominent democratic leader, remains imprisoned. Her National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a landslide victory in 2020, has been dissolved by the junta. Rights groups say an election held under these circumstances cannot be legitimate.
The U.S. State Department continues to warn Americans against travel to Myanmar due to “armed conflict, the potential for civil unrest” and the risk of “wrongful detentions.”
Part of a Broader Immigration Strategy
The Myanmar decision comes as part of a broader rollback of TPS by the Trump administration, which has removed or declined to extend protections for nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Syria, South Sudan, and Venezuela. On Friday, the administration also announced the termination of TPS for Somalia.
Advocacy groups warn that ending Myanmar’s designation will place thousands of long-term residents at risk of deportation to a country engulfed in conflict and widespread repression.
Immigrant-rights organizations say they are preparing legal challenges, arguing that conditions in Myanmar clearly satisfy the statutory requirements for TPS.
The situation continues to evolve, but rights monitors maintain that returning anyone to Myanmar in the current environment would expose them to grave danger—a risk they argue Washington should not ignore as violence, displacement and political turmoil escalate across the country.
