US judge extends deportation protections for migrants from Myanmar

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) – A federal judge ordered President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday to delay its termination of the “Temporary Protected Status,” or TPS, for Myanmar while a lawsuit challenging the termination continued.

The order by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago blocks the Trump administration from ending deportation protections for about 4,000 Myanmar nationals living in the U.S.

The judge said that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Myanmar lacked a genuine basis. Kennelly postponed the effective date of the government’s action, which was to be Monday, and scheduled a February 6 hearing in the case.

The Trump administration had no immediate reaction to the order.

The Trump administration said in November it was ending temporary legal status for citizens of Myanmar in the U.S., arguing they could safely return to the war-torn Southeast Asian country while citing the military junta’s elections as evidence of an improving situation. 

The United Nations, many Western countries and human rights groups have called the ongoing election a sham. The U.S. State Department’s most recent human rights report said there were “significant human rights issues” in Myanmar.

The Trump administration’s move had sparked concern for individuals who might be forced to return to Myanmar, which has been in political turmoil since the military seized power in a 2021 coup, ousting a civilian government and sparking a nationwide armed resistance.

“The Court cannot discern a genuine basis for the Secretary’s action in the record and finds it more likely that the decision to terminate TPS was not actually rooted in the reasons cited in the notice,” the judge wrote. 

“It is more plausible that TPS was terminated to effectuate the Secretary’s broader goal of curtailing immigration and eliminating TPS generally, not on her evaluation of changed conditions in Burma,” the judge added.

“The termination of TPS for Burma appears to have occurred without a review of conditions in that country, much like the administration’s termination of other TPS designations.”

Trump has pursued a hardline immigration policy since taking office in 2025, including an aggressive deportation drive that has been widely condemned by human rights advocates. Trump has cited domestic security reasons for his actions. 

A series of lawsuits have challenged his administration’s efforts to curtail protections from deportation extended to citizens of numerous countries through grants of TPS.

Under federal law, TPS is available to people whose home countries have experienced natural disasters, armed conflicts or other extraordinary events. It provides eligible migrants with work authorization and temporary protection from deportation.

Court rulings have at times slowed or halted the Trump administration’s efforts to strip migrants of their legal status.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Kate Mayberry)