Karen community, supporters outraged by end of temporary asylum protections

Minnesota’s Karen community and its supporters expressed outrage Tuesday at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s decision to end temporary asylum protections for refugees from Myanmar, saying the country, formerly known as Burma, is still not safe.

Minnesota congressional officials estimate roughly a quarter of the 4,000 people from Myanmar in the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) live in the state. Minnesota is home to 20,000 Karen refugees, an indigenous people driven from their homeland in the Southeast Asian country.

Announcing the decision Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested it was safe for refugees to return to Myanmar and that the country had made “notable progress in governance and stability.”

But, Karen community supporters note, the State Department continues to warn against U.S. residents traveling there.

“If Burma is unsafe for American visitors, it is certainly unsafe for those who have fled the country and been given protected status,” U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum said in a statement. The Democrat is a longtime advocate for Minnesota’s Karen population and co-chair of the Burma caucus.

She added that the administration should reverse its decision and “continue to deploy sanctions on the junta and its supporters.”

The protections were granted to Myanmar refugees in 2021, after a military coup and civil war. The country is now run by a military dictatorship with a history of violence against opponents.

TPS allows refugees to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation. When the status is revoked, they will have 60 days to apply for other protections, like permanent asylum, or risk being removed from the U.S.

The TPS for Myanmar is scheduled to be terminated Jan. 26.

Phil Robertson, director of the Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates Consultancy, said in a statement that if Noem’s “order is carried out, she will literally be sending them back to prisons, brutal torture, and death in Myanmar.”

There has been conflict in Myanmar since it won independence in 1948, making it the longest ongoing human conflict. Most of the Karen refugees in Minnesota came here via refugee camps along the county’s border with Thailand.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Alice Buckner, executive director of the Karen Organization of Minnesota. She said conditions in Myanmar constitute a “ongoing humanitarian crisis.”