The dreams of Myanmar’s refugees of living in America vanished by Trump Orders

The family of four refugees filled seven suitcases for their new life in the United States. They packed blankets, canned plates, a blade to clean the earth in their future home and another to cut meat. They left behind what they were supposed to bring: strips, fish pasta, traditional medications of their native Myanmar.

But the family never arrived in Ohio. Last month, his flights were canceled abruptly. Now, with the order of President Trump to stop the resettlement of refugees, even for thousands of those who have gone through the process of approval of years, they have lost hope by becoming Americans.

“I don’t have an opinion about American politics,” said Saw Steel Wah Doh, a 35 -year -old laboratory technician, who is now back in a refugee camp in Thailand with his wife and two children. “I want to become American, work hard, love democracy.”

The Trump administration refugee suspension and the freezing of foreign aid are altering efforts to address one of the most terrible humanitarian crises in the world. Not long ago, Myanmar was an icon of democratic reform praised by the West. Today, four years after the military knocked down an elected government, it is a large international outcome without control since it bombs its own civilians.

On Wednesday, non -governmental organizations that promote democracy and provide treatment to save lives for refugees and people displaced by conflicts in Myanmar said that they were told that subsidies of the national endowment of democracy had been suspended, immediately effective.

Congress created NED during the Reagan era to strengthen democracy worldwide. Three representatives of the help groups related to Myanmar told that they were told that NED has not been able to obtain funds from the United States Treasury to pay the subsidies that had already been approved.

NED’s arrest occurs two weeks after the order of President Trump to freeze most foreign aid, including funds disbursed by the United States Agency for International Development. Myanmar -related programs received around $ 150 million in USAID promises, according to local monitors. Help money would be used for benefits, including HIV treatment and support to inform about exiled media about Myanmar’s civil war.

In 2024, Myanmar was the The second most deployed and violent Place on Earth, according to a global conflict monitor. More than 3 million people are now displaced; Thousands have been killed.

The United States has long offered a legal path to immigration for refugees fleeing persecution, war or other threats to their lives. Mr. Trump’s directive has closed the door to Afghan interpreters who risked their lives for US soldiers and who flee from religious persecution. The dreams of people from Myanmar have also faded, some of whom escaped from the persecution decades ago.

In Bangladesh, an expanding tent settlement for Muslims Rohingya expelled from Myanmar constitutes the world’s largest refugee camp. Mohammad Islam was supposed to be resettled in the United States on February 13, along with his family. That dream has wither.

Mr. Islam, 43, has been a refugee since he was 7 years old, but speaks English fluently and serves as a teacher in the fields.

“I’ve never been in a classroom, I just studied at campaign stores,” he said. “I want my children to learn in a real school, with walls and desks, in the United States.”

The 2021 coup d’etat, which put the generals of Myanmar to the position, attracted the bipartisan sentence in Washington. During Mr. Trump’s first mandate as president, his administration formally labeled the Myanmar Army Violence campaign against Red Genocide a genocide. He also honored Myanmar’s religious minorities in the White House.

But American support for those who fight against the Junta de Myanmar has never approached the monetary commitment made with Ukraine, Israel or other higher aid receptors. In the jungles of Myanmar, university students, young professionals and even poets who have taken weapons to expel generals have expressed their frustration for the little international attention that caught their difficult situation.

At the end of 2022, President Biden promulgated the law of Burma, whose objective is to punish those who abuse human rights in the country and provide assistance to those who oppose the Board. (Burma is the old name of Myanmar).

Last month, Mr. Trump stood out to eliminate a $ 45 million scholarship program that helps Myanmar students flee from the civil war and hoping to study conflict resolution and the construction of peace. With the support of Usaid, the Educational Fund is called the Development and Inclusive Scholarship Program.

“We also block $ 45 million scholarships in Burma,” Trump said, he added: “You can imagine where that money was.”

In an X publication, the so -called government efficiency department described the program as a “scholarship ofi” and said it had been canceled. Trump has said that federal funds should not be used to support diversity, equity and inclusion.

“It seems that they simply closed it because they could,” said Ko Hlwan Paing Thiha, a scholarship receiver. He has been studying for a master’s degree in public policies in Thailand.

While the opposition militias have pushed the Myanmar army of vast stripes of territory, the forces of the Board have avenged civilians through a brutal air campaign and the dispersion of land mines in thousands of villages. The Army has enforced compulsory military service and is kidnapping young men from the streets to fill their ranks.

For the hundreds of refugees from Myanmar already authorized to go to the United States, the perspective of an indefinite immigration arrest is another difficulty in lives harassed by conflict, poverty and insecurity. Saw Htun Htun said his wife and two daughters are already resettled in Vermont. It is supposed to fly to the United States at the end of February, but said it has little hope that the trip will advance.

“My heart is weak, and I’m afraid that I will never see my family again,” he said. “Please, pray for me to go to the United States”

Thinking that he headed to America, Mr. Steel Wah Doh left his laboratory work in his refugee camp in Thailand. His father, who also hopes to be resettled in the United States, cannot obtain the medical check -ups he needs for his immigration paperwork because camp clinics have been closed by Trump’s freezing.

The American help that saves lives is supposed to be exempt from the prohibition of expenses, but the health centers remain closed. Two non -profit representatives said they have been told that they will need to finance programs themselves before receiving reimbursements from US help agencies. They said that what constitutes the aid to save lives.

In Rohingya refugee camps, health clinics, learning centers and sanitation programs financed by the United States have also closed. In one of the most densely full of the earth, the sewers overflow, which represents the threat of the disease, residents say.

Suffering of heart and renal disease, Gul Bahar has walked through the mud to a clinic financed by the United States several times in the last two weeks, only to be rejected.

“I have no hope,” he said.

In Lakewood, Ohio, Mr. Steel Wah Doh’s cousin, Lay Htooo, 19, said he felt terrible for his relatives who did not appear as expected.

Mr. Htooo was almost 8 years old when he and his family moved to the United States. I didn’t speak English.

His father is now a mechanic in a factory that manufactures game materials. Mr. Htooo is studying health at a community university, the first in his family to access higher education.

Now an American citizen, Mr. Htooo said he did not vote in last year’s elections. Some of Myanmar’s other refugees in the city, including family friends, he said, support Trump because they consider him a talented business man.

“To be honest, live in those refugee fields, I remember it, and it is not even 100 percent to live,” said Htooo. “If I was still caught there and knew that other people voted for a guy who revoked my chance for a new life, would be extremely furious.”

Saiful Arakani contributed Teknaf reports, Bangladesh.