Advancing Justice | AAJC Commends the U.S. Government’s Decision to Grant TPS for Over a Thousand Burmese Nationals
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WASHINGTON, D.C.—March 15, 2021— Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced that the U.S. government would designate Burma ( Myanmar) for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC commends the administration’s decision which would allow around 1,600 Burmese nationals resettled across the country to remain in the United States temporarily and work.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC issues the following statement:
"We commend the Department of Homeland Security in its decision to grant Temporary Protected Status to Burmese nationals currently in the U.S. This decision comes at a crucial time as an estimated 1,600 Burmese nationals fear being forced to return to a country suffering from serious human rights violations and military control along with the COVID-19 health crisis. Since 1962, the Burmese government has been under the control of their military with a brief return to civilian power in 2011. Over the last two decades, the U.S. has resettled over one hundred thousand Burmese and ethnic minority peoples from Burma offering safe haven from a brutal regime. In more recent years, the U.S. has resettled Rohingya people, a Muslim ethnic minority fleeing ethnic cleansing and genocide by the Burmese military.
Following the 2020 national election, a military coup taking control of the government from elected officials has plunged the country into a year-long state of emergency with arbitrary detentions and continuing violence against civilians. The U.S. government’s grant of TPS would provide many Burmese nationals visiting, studying or residing in the United States temporary status and work authorization and provide them a safe haven in the United States."