A federal judge in Chicago has temporarily halted the Trump administration's effort to terminate Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for nationals of Myanmar, preserving deportation protections for roughly 4,000 people in the United States while litigation over the decision moves forward.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly issued the order on Friday, postponing the government's planned termination - which had been set to take effect on Monday - and scheduling a hearing on the case for February 6. The judge directed that the administration delay ending TPS for people from Myanmar pending the outcome of the legal challenge.
The court's decision came after a review of the administrative record in which the judge concluded the actions of U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem lacked a sufficient factual basis. In his written findings, Kennelly said the record did not support the reasons cited by the secretary for terminating TPS for Myanmar.
"The Court cannot discern a genuine basis for the Secretary’s action in the record and finds it more likely that the decision to terminate TPS was not actually rooted in the reasons cited in the notice," the judge wrote.
Kennelly added that the termination appeared more plausibly connected to a broader policy objective than to an assessment of changed conditions in Myanmar. He wrote that "It is more plausible that TPS was terminated to effectuate the Secretary’s broader goal of curtailing immigration and eliminating TPS generally, not on her evaluation of changed conditions in Burma." The judge also observed that the termination "appears to have occurred without a review of conditions in that country, much like the administration’s termination of other TPS designations."
The Trump administration had not provided an immediate public response to the court order.
In November, the administration announced it would end temporary legal status for Myanmar citizens in the United States, asserting that they could safely return to the country. The administration cited the military junta's elections as evidence that conditions in Myanmar had improved enough to permit repatriation.
That claim has been disputed by the United Nations, many Western governments and human rights organizations, which have described the elections as a sham. The U.S. State Department's most recent human rights report also identified "significant human rights issues" in Myanmar. The country has been in political turmoil since the military seized power in a 2021 coup, ousting a civilian government and prompting a nationwide armed resistance.
Advocates and legal challengers argued that terminating TPS for Myanmar nationals could force some individuals to return to a nation still experiencing serious instability. The administration's move to end TPS for Myanmar was among a series of actions aimed at curtailing protections for migrants from multiple countries that had been extended through TPS.
Under federal law, Temporary Protected Status is designated for people whose home countries have undergone natural disasters, armed conflict or other extraordinary events. The designation provides eligible migrants with work authorization and temporary protection from deportation. Court rulings have at times slowed or stopped the administration's efforts to remove such protections.
With the judge's order in place, the fate of TPS for Myanmar nationals will be determined in the coming weeks as the case proceeds toward the February 6 hearing. The injunction maintains the status quo for the affected individuals while the court examines whether the administration followed lawful procedures and relied on adequate factual determinations in its decision to terminate TPS.