The Donald Trump administration has ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for citizens of Myanmar (Burma). About 4,000 people who came to the United States to escape violence and humanitarian catastrophe in the Asian country will be left without the protections that allowed them to stay in the United States and face deportation starting in January.
In 2021, Myanmar citizens received TPS designation, a tool that protects against deportation and grants work authorization when their home countries face armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other exceptional and temporary circumstances.
“This decision restores TPS to its original temporary status,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced. He added: “The situation in Burma has improved enough to enable Burmese citizens to return home safely, so we are ending temporary protected status. Burma has made significant progress in governance and stability, including ending the state of emergency, plans for free and fair elections, successful ceasefire agreements and improved local governance, which have contributed to improved public service delivery and national reconciliation.”
Four years ago, the military seized power in Myanmar in a violent coup that ended its fragile democracy and plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis. Since then, the junta has waged a campaign of terror against its own people, bombing villages, burning homes, arresting political opponents, and attacking ethnic and religious minorities such as the Rohingya.
DHS acknowledged in a statement that the country “continues to face humanitarian challenges, due in part to ongoing military operations against armed resistance and the need for humanitarian assistance,” but added: “There have been improvements in governance and stability in Burma at both the national and local levels,” because on July 31 the state of emergency officially ended.
TPS is approved for 18-month periods and the latest extension, approved by Joe Biden’s government, expires on November 25. DHS said there is a 60-day period for citizens to remain protected, so it will take effect on January 26, 2026.
Human rights organizations have called for the country to continue under the umbrella of the temporary protection system due to the ongoing difficult conditions. In addition to the violence resulting from the conflict, which has led to religious persecution, mass displacement and widespread human rights violations, the country is suffering the consequences of a devastating earthquake, which last March left more than 5,000 people dead.
Experts condemn the military junta committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including mass murder and random bombings. Residents face difficulties in obtaining food, medicine and humanitarian aid, especially in minority areas, and the earthquake destroyed much of the already weak infrastructure.
In July, a coalition of 158 organizations, including religious institutions, Burmese diaspora groups, immigrant rights organizations, legal service providers, and community advocates, sent a letter to the Donald Trump administration requesting that TPS be preserved.
However, the Department of Homeland Security justified ending TPS because “while certain exceptional and temporary circumstances may persist, they no longer impede the safe return of foreign nationals from Burma to the country.”
Ending the TPS humanitarian program has been one of the goals of the US government, which has already ended temporary status granted to other countries such as Venezuela, South Sudan, Syria and Afghanistan. Somalia is the latest country where DHS plans to end temporary protected status. Noem announced Sunday in Minneapolis that her office would evaluate the possibility of ending protections for Somalis under the program in Minnesota, where the majority of that country’s citizens live, though she would expand its scope to include the entire United States.
Trump said on his social network “Truth” on Friday that he would withdraw the temporary protection regime from Somalia because “Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great country,” without providing further explanations.
Temporary protection was first granted to Somalis in 1991, when the country was torn apart by civil war. The designation has been extended several times since then, with the most recent renewal scheduled to run through mid-March 2026. Although an estimated 42,500 foreign-born Somalis live in Minnesota, only about 700 of them are covered by the Temporary Protected Status program.