Trump Is Sending Myanmar Nationals to ‘Prisons, Torture, and Death’ by Ending Their Protected Status
Human rights groups slammed DHS’s decision to end TPS for nearly 4,000 Myanmar nationals, as the country continues to face a brutal military dictatorship and bloody civil war.
The Trump administration this week revealed its latest target in its crackdown on temporary asylum: Myanmar nationals fleeing a bloody civil war, a brutal military dictatorship, and a worsening humanitarian crisis.
The Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday that it was ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nearly 4,000 citizens of Myanmar who are currently in the US – a move human rights groups slammed as dangerous and inconsistent with the reality on the ground.
“Homeland Secretary Kirsti Noem is treating those people just like her family’s dog that she famously shot down in cold blood because it misbehaved,” said Phil Robertson, the director of Asian Human Rights and Labour Advocates. “If her order is carried out, she will literally be sending them back to prisons, brutal torture, and death in Myanmar.”
The TPS designation allows people from listed countries to stay and work in the US if it’s unsafe for them to return to their home country due to a war, natural disaster, or other conflict.
In its notice, DHS acknowledged that Myanmar continues to face “humanitarian challenges,” but attempted to justify its decision to end the TPS designation, which will take effect on Jan. 26, by claiming there have “been improvements in [Myanmar’s] governance and stability at the national and local levels.” It cited the junta’s revocation of the state of emergency this year and the country’s upcoming elections.
But human rights groups immediately pushed back on the claims, with Human Rights Watch’s Asia advocacy director John Sifton writing, “Extensive reporting on Myanmar contradicts almost every assertion in the [DHS] notice.”
He noted that “Myanmar’s supposedly revoked state of emergency in July was immediately replaced with a new state of emergency and martial law in scores of townships across nine states and regions.” He added that foreign governments and UN officials widely view the planned “elections” as a “ploy for international legitimacy.”
Myanmar is ranked second for conflict intensity after Palestine by the global conflict monitor ACLED. Nearly 20 million people need humanitarian assistance in Myanmar, according to the UN. Myanmar’s ongoing civil war that erupted in 2021 has killed thousands of people and displaced 3 million others. The death toll varies greatly, but the ACLED estimates up to 90,000 fatalities.
The Arakan Army, which is warring against the Myanmar military and represents the Rakhine ethnic majority, is accused by international human rights groups of serious abuses against Rohingya, the predominantly Muslim ethnic minority, including executions, torture, forced labor, and large-scale arson. The Myanmar military has also been accused of airstrikes on homes, schools, and hospitals, as well as executions and systematic torture in detention facilities.
The State Department’s own travel guidance urges Americans not to travel to Myanmar, citing “armed conflict, the potential for civil unrest, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, poor health infrastructure, land mines and unexploded ordnance, crime, and wrongful detentions.” And just this month, the US mission to the UN said it remained “deeply concerned” by evidence of human rights abuses in the “ongoing civil war.”
DHS’s announcement came just days after Trump claimed he was “immediately” terminating TPS for Somalis in Minnesota, which is home to the largest Somali population in the US. After the announcement, which drew immediate outrage from immigration advocates, Noem said she was weighing whether to extend Somalia’s protected status, which has been in effect since 1991. If the designation is revoked, it would be for Somalis across the country, not just in Minnesota – as there is no legal mechanism for the president to terminate TPS for a specific group in a specific state. Those with TPS represent only a small fraction of the Somali population in the US.
The Trump administration has already moved to terminate TPS for several countries, including Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, South Sudan, Cameroon, and Venezuela. The decisions put hundreds of thousands of people at risk, rights groups say.
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