Myanmar, a nation in southeast Asia where there is a continuing civil war, is now eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from the US government.
The change was made in a draft notice that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted on Monday in the Federal Register, which was scheduled to be made official the day after.
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Kristi Noem, the program’s administrator, was given the go-ahead for ending the program, according to the report.
The Secretary concluded that Burma [Myanmar] no longer meets the requirements for Temporary Protected Status after reviewing country conditions and consulting with appropriate U.S. Government agencies, according to the document.
Therefore, the Secretary is robbing Burma of its Temporary Protected Status in accordance with the law.
Temporary Protected Status, a legal immigration pathway for foreigners whose home country is unsafe to return to, is currently available to 3, 969 citizens of Myanmar.
Successful applicants who are already living and working in the US are granted the status. As of November 10, there were 236 more applications from Myanmar.
However, President Donald Trump’s administration has attempted to reduce immigration.
Therefore, it has made an effort to revoke Temporary Protected Status for several individuals, including those in Haiti, Afghanistan, Venezuela, and other unstable nations.
Trump announced on his platform Truth Social just last Friday that he was “hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota” and that he had accused gangs of Somali nationals of “terrorizing” the state.
“Return them to their starting point.” Trump declared that “it’s over.”
However, legal experts are unsure about a president’s authority to revoke Temporary Protected Status for a particular group or state. Some claim that Trump has attempted to intimidate immigrants and force them to leave the country.
Under Trump, there is a historic low in the federal government’s capacity for refugee admissions, which is 7,500.
Additionally, the Trump administration has attempted to eject “humanitarian parole” from hundreds of thousands of immigrants. In response to emergencies or humanitarian concerns, immigrants are able to enter the nation for a short time using that program.
Several of those efforts are currently facing legal challenges. However, the Supreme Court has largely supported the Trump administration so far.
For instance, a majority of the high court’s ruling on May 30 lifted a lower court’s ban on the Department of Homeland Security from putting an end to the humanitarian parole for nearly 500,000 Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and Haitians was in an unsigned decision.
Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, two left-leaning justices, dissented, saying that while the legal challenge is pending, removing the pause would be very harmful to US immigrants.
The decision, according to Brown Jackson, “undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.”
Myanmar experiencing unrest
The Department of State has issued the highest tier travel advisory against transit through Myanmar.
The danger of “armed conflict, the potential for civil unrest, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, poor health infrastructure, land mines and unexploded ordnance, crime, and wrongful detentions” was raised in the report.
The country has been at war with civil unrest ever since the military overthrew the government of President Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, which is the most recent development in nearly eight decades of internal unrest.
The military’s leadership is engaged in combat with opposition groups, armed ethnic groups, and members of the exiled government.
It has launched a series of heavy airstrikes, some of which reportedly targeted hospitals and schools. Human rights violations, including torture, have been committed against both rebels and soldiers.
As of October, according to the UN, the conflict’s ongoing deluge has resulted in the displacement of nearly 1,585,298 people seeking refuge in neighboring Bangladesh and Malaysia.
In the course of the fighting, Rohingya ethnic people who have been repressed have been declared stateless.
In May 2021, former US President Joe Biden granted Temporary Protected Status to citizens of Myanmar.
The administration then extended the protection designation twice, once in May of 2024 and once in September of 2022. The most recent 18-month extension was scheduled to expire on November 25.
60 days after the Federal Register’s official publication date of the notice, Temporary Protected Status will terminate.
Secretary Noem declared in a statement that the country’s security had determined that residents should return.
The notice stated that “Burma]Myanmar continues to face humanitarian challenges as a result of ongoing military operations against armed resistance and the need for humanitarian assistance.”
However, Burma’s governance and stability have improved at both the national and local levels.
The notice added that “contrary to the U.S. national interest” to allow residents of Myanmar to stay.
9, 590 Myanmar citizens were eligible for protection, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security to Congress in March.
