The Department of Homeland Security announced that the Secretary of Homeland Security is terminating the designation of Burma (Myanmar) for Temporary Protected Status. On November 25, Secretary Noem said, “The situation in Burma has improved enough that it is safe for Burmese citizens to return home.”
According to the secretary, “Burma 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.”
The only true “progress” the junta has made by ending the state of emergency and scheduling elections is an attempt to enhance its legitimacy with Western governments.
Unfortunately, every aspect of this statement is incorrect. Burma has not made progress on stability, and the ceasefires were limited to a small number of junta-aligned ethnic armed groups that had been selling weapons and ammunition to the resistance. These ceasefires only hamper the resistance’s ability to protect its territory and the civilians who have taken refuge there, while enabling the junta’s continued attacks.
In the months leading up to the election, the Burma military has accelerated its airstrikes in Karenni and southern Shan. The Myanmar Air Force struck schools, churches, medical facilities, and displacement camps from June to September, killing at least 55 civilians and injuring more than 40. In early October, in neighboring Karenni State, a Burma military airstrike killed five people, and Burma Army attacks now threaten to displace more than 1,000 people who have already been living in IDP sites. Across Karenni State, at least 20,000-35,000 people have become newly displaced since March.
Nearly 100 percent of Karenni State’s population has been displaced at least once, and the junta’s recent escalation ahead of the election has forced some families to flee multiple times as the frontline pushes deeper into resistance-held territory.
In Burma’s Karen State, resistance soldiers, civilians, and the few remaining aid workers are on edge, anticipating the largest battle in years. The junta is amassing troops and escalating airstrikes as it pushes to seize territory ahead of the election. Civilians fleeing these attacks have taken refuge in internally displaced persons camps inside resistance-controlled areas, but the junta’s advance has driven airstrikes and shelling deeper into these “safe zones,” forcing tens of thousands to relocate yet again. The coming battle is expected to result in a large number of casualties and even more displacement.
It is incomprehensible that so many people are dying and suffering for an election that is so clearly flawed. Human-rights groups and the majority of independent experts recognize that the elections, scheduled to begin in December and carried out in phases, will not be fair. The election is being organized by the State Administration Council, the junta that seized power in the 2021 coup. The electoral body, the Union Election Commission, has been re-staffed with military appointees rather than independent officials.
The resistance currently controls about 70 percent of the country’s territory, and resistance-held areas were excluded from the election census and will not be able to vote. Since the coup, the regime has barred genuine opposition. The main pro-democracy party, the National League for Democracy, was dissolved in 2023, while other anti-junta parties were forcibly closed. Civic space is severely restricted, and legal changes have crushed freedom of the media, assembly, and expression.
For the 3,000 to 4,000 Burmese currently under U.S. Temporary Protected Status, the end of TPS means that everyone who depended on it as their sole legal status becomes undocumented on the day the designation expires. This means they lose the legal right to live in the United States, their Employment Authorization Documents become invalid, and they cannot legally remain unless they qualify for another visa or status.
All people sent back to Burma will risk being jailed or tortured, because anyone returning from the United States can be treated as a suspected opponent of the regime.
The removal of TPS and Secretary Noem’s statements legitimize an election that is so obviously a sham. Since only junta-aligned or junta-approved parties have been allowed to compete, it is almost certain that a junta-aligned government will claim victory and seek international recognition. This would further marginalize the resistance in the eyes of many foreign governments.
The resistance is already struggling with the twin tasks of caring for internally displaced people while attempting to dislodge the junta from the remaining free areas, all while receiving no international support. If the international community accepts and supports the junta, thousands will die, tens of thousands will be displaced, and the country’s dream of establishing an inclusive federal democracy will be crushed.
The post EXCLUSIVE: Reporting from Burma – Temporary Protected Status Removed, but the Situation Is Not Stable appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.