Rights advocates and Myanmar observers are condemning Washington’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 4,000 Myanmar nationals in the United States, warning that the move could force people back into an active war zone and hand a propaganda victory to the military junta.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on 24 November that TPS status would end on 26 January 2026 for nationals of a number of countries, including Myanmar.
DHS claims that conditions in Myanmar had “improved enough” for citizens to return safely. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Myanmar – which the US government refers to as Burma – had made
“notable progress in governance and stability,” pointing to the junta’s lifting of a state of emergency in July, its promise of elections beginning next month, and purported ceasefires with armed groups.
The junta was quick to seize on the announcement, portraying it as evidence of international support for its planned December–January polls. The elections, however, are widely dismissed as a sham by the opposition, Myanmar political observers, and human rights organisations.
State media urged Myanmar nationals in the US to “come back and vote,” even as fighting continues across much of the country and reports continue of forcible conscription into the military’s ranks.
Human rights groups sharply rejected Washington’s assessment. Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates, blasted Noem’s decision as dangerous and cruel.
“By revoking temporary protected status… she will literally be sending them back to prisons, brutal torture, and death in Myanmar,” he said. “Secretary Noem is seriously deluded if she thinks the upcoming elections in Myanmar will be even remotely free and fair… This is some of the worst of the worst foreign policy ever seen from the Trump Administration in Southeast Asia.”
According to other long-term observers of Myanmar’s politics, the administration seems grossly uninformed about the conditions in the country. Instead, it is taking at face value the junta’s planned elections as evidence of “improving” conditions.
This flies in the face of daily reports of ongoing fighting across the country, airstrikes and artillery bombardments targeting schools, religious institutions and homes, and the arrest of individuals for merely questioning the veracity of the junta’s election process.
Indeed, the State Department continues to warn Americans not to travel to Myanmar due to conflict and rights abuses.
For many Myanmar nationals in the US, advocates say, the end of TPS could mean deportation to a country experiencing its deadliest phase of civil war since the 2021 coup
