Myanmar Nationals Face Deportation From US After Court Ruling – The Diplomat

A U.S. federal judge has cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s administration to end temporary protected status (TPS) for nearly 4,000 people from Myanmar, presaging their possible arrest and deportation.

In a ruling on Friday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly of the Northern District of Illinois rejected last-minute efforts by immigrant rights advocates to maintain the TPS designations. The ruling came just hours after a federal judge in Boston handed down a similar ruling rejecting a challenge from an immigrant-advocacy organization against the removal of TPS status from around 232 South Sudanese nationals.

Both rulings referenced a U.S. Supreme Court decision from June, which ruled that the administration had the authority to end similar protections for thousands of people from Haiti and Syria. The Supreme Court ruling limited lower courts’ ability to block DHS’ efforts to end TPS for people from roughly a dozen countries, arguing that federal judges had no authority to weigh in on a challenge to TPS terminations.

TPS was created by the U.S. Congress in 1990, and protects non-U.S. citizens from deportation to countries facing armed conflict or other crises posing a threat to their safety. It also grants them authorization to work in the U.S.

The TPS designation for Myanmar was granted for the first time after the 2021 military coup, which was followed by a nationwide uprising against military rule. The ongoing civil war and military repression have wrecked Myanmar’s economy, displaced more than 3.5 million people, and pushed tens of thousands more to flee the country. There are around 4,000 Myanmar nationals currently in the U.S. under the TPS program.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked TPS status for Myanmar in November of last year, citing the military junta’s upcoming elections as evidence that the country had “made notable progress in governance and stability.” The TPS designation for Myanmar was originally set to expire in January, but court orders kept the protections in place while a class-action lawsuit challenged the DHS decision.

While the Trump administration said that the revocation of TPS status was justified by improvements in Myanmar’s political situation, plaintiffs argued in their lawsuit that the decision failed to account for the real conditions in Myanmar, where conflict and military repression continue unabated, and was just one aspect of a broader campaign to end TPS designations.

During Trump’s second term, the DHS has revoked TPS protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants from countries including Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Syria, South Sudan, and Venezuela.

In addition to losing their ability to work in the U.S., the 4,000 Myanmar nationals now face possible arrest and deportation. According to one report, many of these Myanmar nationals have lived and worked in the United States since fleeing the country; some have even raised U.S. citizen children.

In a statement issued after the ruling, the International Refugee Assistance Project described the decision as “devastating” for these individuals.

“The court’s decision to allow TPS protections to lapse puts thousands of Burmese TPS holders in grave danger,” said Dinesh McCoy, a staff attorney at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund who was lead counsel in the case. “It is unconscionable for the Trump administration to gamble with their lives as part of its larger campaign to use immigration policy as a tool for racial exclusion.”

Thura Doe, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said that he was “devastated” by the court’s ruling and “terrified of what will happen if I’m forced to return to Burma.”

McCoy said that his organization was “continuing to explore all available legal options.”