On November 24, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it is ending the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) immigration program that protects nearly 4,000 citizens from Myanmar who came legally to the United States to escape religious persecution, political repression, and other forms of extreme violence.
The DHS announcement is both a cruel betrayal of the Myanmar people, who are longtime allies of the United States, as well as a reckless misinterpretation of broader U.S. foreign policy towards Myanmar. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, claimed that it is “safe” for Myanmar citizens to return home because the country “has made notable progress in governance and stability, including the end of its state of emergency, plans for free and fair elections, successful ceasefire agreements, and improved local governance contributing to enhanced public service delivery and national reconciliation.” These reasons, which are repeated in more detail in the accompanying Federal Register notice, bear a striking resemblance to the narratives that the Myanmar military junta is using in an active effort to consolidate its power through sham elections scheduled for December.
The DHS announcement sets the U.S. government’s wider Myanmar policy on a dangerous pathway. By looking at Myanmar foreign policy solely through the lens of immigration, the Trump Administration has opened the door for the country’s military junta to quietly advance its own priorities – including U.S. acceptance of the junta’s sham elections, U.S. recognition of the junta as the official Government of Myanmar, and removal of sanctions on junta leaders – without any apparent coordination among Administration officials on the broader implications of adopting the junta’s messaging.
Myanmar: An Active Conflict Zone With a Widespread Humanitarian Crisis
The TPS program allows foreign nationals from designated countries who have experienced armed conflict or other extreme events to remain in the United States on a temporary basis. Democratic leaders and members of persecuted religious minorities in Myanmar have benefited from the program. Experts on the ongoing conflict in Myanmar have warned that these individuals could face dangerous humanitarian conditions, religious persecution, imprisonment, and death if they are forced to return on January 26, 2026, when the TPS status expires.
Secretary Noem’s statement about current conditions in Myanmar isn’t even remotely accurate: Myanmar’s citizens continue to experience ongoing armed conflict, extensive human rights abuses at the hands of the military junta, and dire humanitarian conditions. Earlier this year, the United Nations reported that the Myanmar military junta has murdered over 6,000 civilians since the coup began in 2021, arbitrarily detained tens of thousands of people, and fueled a growing humanitarian crisis. After a devastating earthquake in March, for example, the junta blocked lifesaving aid from reaching thousands of people. Attacks on civilians, including the detention, torture, and disappearance of many of the junta’s opponents, occur on a daily basis. Air strikes on villages continue, such as one in October that killed 24 people and wounded 45 who were attending a religious festival.
In the past few months, the junta has also scaled up efforts to crack down on free speech and freedom of the press in the run-up to elections in December. The media has reported numerous arrests of those who have criticized the elections, including the targeting of a Burmese movie director and two actors who criticized a junta propaganda film promoting the upcoming election.
Meanwhile, experts widely agree that the military junta’s planned elections will be fraudulent, and that these elections are not a sign of stability but a cynical attempt by coup leader Min Aung Hlaing to consolidate power.
The Military Junta is Taking Advantage of the U.S. Government’s Lack of a Coherent Policy on Myanmar
Pro-democracy groups in Myanmar have long received bipartisan support in the United States. Members of Congress from both political parties continue to advocate for stronger protections for Myanmar citizens and for the U.S. government to use its leverage to help stop the military junta’s atrocities and war crimes.
Despite this bipartisan consensus, the military junta appears to have found a way to influence U.S. foreign policy in its favor, and Secretary Noem’s announcement might be an indicator that this strategy is working.
For example, Secretary Noem’s references to the military junta’s “end of its state of emergency” and “plans for free and fair elections” come directly from propaganda language used by the military junta.
In August 2025, the military junta reportedly employed two U.S. public relations firms, DCI Consulting and the McKeon Group, to help influence U.S. government policy. Until July, it would have been illegal for these U.S. firms to lobby the U.S. government for the benefit of the Myanmar military junta. In May 2021, shortly after the coup began, the U.S. placed sanctions on the junta’s governing body, the State Administration Council (SAC). Under U.S. sanctions law, acting for the benefit of a sanctioned entity is prohibited.
However, on July 31, 2025, the junta “dissolved” the SAC and replaced it with the State Security and Peace Commission (SSPC). The process involved a few theatrical steps, such as temporarily transferring power to a Myanmar government entity and then handing it back to the junta. The new governing body, the SSPC, is run by the same top four junta leaders as before. It is a rebranding of the same military junta.
Unfortunately, U.S. sanctions law is not equipped to handle this kind of maneuver. Sanctions on the SAC do not automatically transfer to the SSPC. The U.S. government has not taken proactive steps to fix this loophole.
As a result, the military junta’s governing body has been unsanctioned for months, opening the doors for it to lobby the U.S. government with the help of U.S. public relations firms. Both DCI Consulting and the McKeon Group moved quickly: DCI Consulting reported in a foreign agents registration filing that it signed its contract with junta representatives on July 31, the day that the junta “dissolved” the SAC. The McKeon Group’s filing indicates that it signed its contract with junta representatives on August 1. Given the timing, both firms were presumably aware of the junta’s plans in advance.
It is unclear whether these two public relations firms influenced the DHS decision. But it is clear that DHS is using the military junta’s narrative to shape U.S. policy, despite having access to numerous Myanmar civil society leaders and experts in Washington, D.C. – including both conservatives and liberals – who could have provided an accurate assessment of conditions in the country.
DHS Should Not Be Leading U.S. Foreign Policy in Myanmar
The DHS announcement to end the Myanmar TPS program will have far-reaching implications beyond immigration policy and needs to be reversed. If allowed to proceed, the actions of DHS will undermine the U.S. government’s longstanding, bipartisan policy of supporting the people of Myanmar in their aspirations to live free from a repressive military junta.
Moving forward, there is an urgent need for more coordinated, informed leadership from the U.S. government on foreign policy in relation to Myanmar. We can only hope that the Administration will begin to consult more proactively with Myanmar civil society groups in the United States and with members of Congress who are monitoring the conflict, rather than relying on the propaganda of a junta committed to using terror against its fellow citizens.
To learn more about efforts underway to support the people from Myanmar who are in the United States as part of the TPS program, please visit the website of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
