Chicago: A US federal judge has barred the Trump administration from ending deportation protections for over 3,600 Myanmar migrants in the US, reported local media. Judge Matthew Kennelly, serving in the state of Illinois, ruled in a 57-page opinion that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Myanmar nationals did not adequately consider the ongoing conditions in Myanmar. The country has been grappling with a prolonged internal ethnic conflict that has caused widespread violence and displacement.

According to Anadolu Agency, Judge Kennelly noted that despite Noem’s defense that conditions in Myanmar had improved sufficiently to allow deportations, other Trump administration officials reported ongoing “violence against civilians including airstrikes, shelling, and razing of villages, human trafficking, and dire humanitarian need” in the conflict-ridden country. Kennelly argued that the termination of TPS seemed more aligned with Noem’s “broader goal of curtailing immigration and eliminating T.P.S. generally,” rather than an accurate assessment of the current situation in Myanmar, also referred to as Burma.

Since a 2021 coup, Myanmar, a nation of over 54 million people, has suffered from internal ethnic conflict involving armed groups and the military. This turmoil has resulted in thousands of deaths and the displacement of over 3.5 million people.