An estimated 1,200 Minnesotans from Myanmar lost temporary protected immigration status on Aug. 7 when a federal judge sided with the Trump administration’s move to end the program.
The judicial rule ends temporary protected status (TPS) for roughly 4,000 people from Myanmar, also known as Burma, in the United States. Minnesota has a sizable community from Myanmar, mostly members of the Karen ethnic group.
Many Karen refugees have been living in fear this year amidst the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The community has been targeted in Operation PARRIS, a Department of Homeland Security operation that subjected previously vetted refugees to detention and hourslong interviews.
The Trump administration moved last November to end TPS from Myanmar by the end of January 2026, and was immediately met with a legal challenge from the Asian American Legal Defense Fund. The lawsuit was able to delay the end of TPS until this month. But a June Supreme Court ruling in a similar case seeking to block the ending of TPS for Haitian and Syrian nationals limited avenues for appeal.
“We’re in a very difficult judicial context right now,” Dinesh McCoy, a lawyer with the Asian American Legal Defense Fund, told Sahan Journal.
The Immigration Act of 1990 allows the federal government to grant TPS to people whose home countries were experiencing war or natural disasters. The designation typically lasts from six to 18 months, and allows people to legally work and live in the United States. More than 1.3 million people from 17 countries had TPS at the start of 2025.
Since Trump returned to the White House, Homeland Security has moved to end or not renew the protection for people from 13 countries. Some of those designations had been in place for more than a decade.
Losing TPS does not automatically make a person deportable, McCoy said, despite an impression from the federal government that those losing their status should leave immediately.
“Really, no matter what, we are encouraging people to talk to an immigration attorney, because there are potentially other options for people” to stay in the United States, McCoy said.
Leaving isn’t a good option for people from Myanmar, community members and Karen organizations told Sahan Journal.
Saw Poe Aye, a Karen immigrant, came to Minnesota as a refugee in September 2011. He works as a tree trimmer, and has built a life in St. Paul, where he’s helped new arrivals acclimate to life in the United States. Aye, who has received his citizenship and is not reliant on TPS, said the move to end protections doesn’t match up with conditions in Myanmar.
“Now, it’s worse than before,” Aye said of conditions in Myanmar. “A lot of people are struggling there.”
Minnesota is home to about 22,000 people from Myanmar. Thousands fled the country during a civil war, and largely arrived in the United States in the mid- 2000s through the early 2010s after stints in Thai refugee camps.
A 2021 military coup installed a ruling junta, and fighting continues in the country. The U.S. government began offering TPS to people from Myanmar after the 2021 coup.
Myanmar is ruled by an oppressive regime, Aye said, adding that he wants the U.S. government to accept more refugees from his home country. Life in the United States has been a blessing for him.
“We can eat, we can sleep well, we can go freely, we can talk freely,” he said.
Alice Buckner, executive director of the Karen Organization of Minnesota, said the end of TPS is another stressor on a community that has faced decades of displacement.
“People do not want to go back to Thailand; they certainly don’t want to go back to [Myanmar],” Buckner said.
The Karen Organization of Minnesota has had several clients who were subjected to Operation PARRIS interviews, Buckner said. The interviews can last up to seven hours, and many Karen refugees are repeatedly asked why they don’t want to return to their home country, she added.
“The PARRIS interrogations have been the thing that is the most triggering or upsetting to our clients, because that brings them right back to the interrogations to get out of the Thai refugee camps,” Buckner said.
The U.S. State Department continues to advise Americans against traveling to Myanmar for any reason, citing ongoing armed conflict.
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum, who serves as the co-chair of the Burma Caucus, has been critical of the decision.
“If it’s unsafe for Americans to travel to Burma, then it’s unsafe for those who have fled the country and been given protected status to return home — where they could be killed, imprisoned, or interned,” McCollum said in a statement.
