The family of four refugees filled seven suitcases for their new life in America. They packed blankets, tin plates, one blade for clearing the land in their future home and one for chopping meat. They left behind what they were not supposed to bring: slingshots, fish paste, traditional medicines from their native Myanmar.
But the family never made it to Ohio. Last month, their flights were abruptly canceled. Now with President Trump’s order to pause refugee resettlement, even for thousands of those who have gone through the yearslong approval process, they say they have lost hope in ever becoming Americans.
“I don’t have an opinion about American politics,” said Saw Steel Wah Doh, a 35-year-old lab 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’s refugee suspension and foreign aid freeze are upending efforts to address one of the world’s most dire humanitarian crises. Not too long ago, Myanmar was an icon of democratic reform lauded by the West. Today, four years after the military toppled an elected government, it is an international pariah largely unchecked as it bombs its own civilians.
On Wednesday, nongovernmental organizations that promote democracy and provide lifesaving treatment for refugees and people displaced by conflict in Myanmar said they were told that grants from the National Endowment for Democracy had been suspended, effective immediately.
The N.E.D. was set up by Congress during the Reagan era to strengthen democracy worldwide. Three representatives of Myanmar-related aid groups said they were told that the N.E.D. has not been able to draw funds from the U.S. Treasury to pay for grants that had already been approved.
The N.E.D. stoppage comes two weeks after President Trump’s order to freeze most foreign aid, including funds disbursed by the United States Agency for International Development. Myanmar-related programs received about $150 million in pledges from U.S.A.I.D., according to local monitors. The aid money was to be used for benefits including H.I.V. treatment and support for exiled media reporting on Myanmar’s civil war.
In 2024, Myanmar was the second-most-dangerous 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 shut the door to Afghan translators who risked their lives for American soldiers and to those fleeing religious persecution. It has also dashed the dreams of people from Myanmar, some of whom escaped persecution decades ago.
In Bangladesh, a sprawling tent settlement for Rohingya Muslims expelled from Myanmar constitutes the world’s largest refugee camp. Mohammad Islam was supposed to be resettled in the United States on Feb. 13, along with his family. That dream has withered.
Mr. Islam, 43, has been a refugee since he was 7, but he speaks fluent English and serves as a teacher in the camps.
“I have never been in a classroom, I only studied in tent shelters,” he said. “I want my children to learn in a real school, with walls and desks, in the United States.”
The 2021 coup, which put Myanmar’s generals back in charge, drew bipartisan condemnation in Washington. During Mr. Trump’s first term as president, his administration formally labeled the Myanmar military’s campaign of violence against the Rohingya a genocide. He also honored religious minorities from Myanmar at the White House.
But American support for those fighting Myanmar’s junta has never approached the monetary commitment made to Ukraine, Israel or other top aid recipients. In Myanmar’s jungles, university students, young professionals and even poets who have taken up arms to oust the generals have expressed frustration at how little international attention their plight garners.
In late 2022, President Biden signed into law the BURMA Act, which aims to punish those abusing human rights in the country and to provide assistance to those opposing the junta. (Burma is Myanmar’s former name.).
Last month, Mr. Trump singled out for elimination a $45 million scholarship program that helps Myanmar students fleeing civil war and hoping to study conflict resolution and peace building. Supported by U.S.A.I.D., the educational fund is called the Development and Inclusive Scholarship Program.
“We also blocked $45 million from diversity scholarships in Burma,” Mr. Trump said, adding, “you can imagine where that money went.”
In a post on X, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency labeled the program a “DEI scholarship” and said it had been canceled. Mr. Trump has said federal funds should not be used to support diversity, equity and inclusion.
“It feels like they just shut it down because they could,” said Ko Hlwan Paing Thiha, a scholarship recipient. He has been studying for a master’s in public policy in Thailand.
While opposition militias have pushed the Myanmar military from vast swathes of territory, the junta’s forces have exacted revenge on civilians through a brutal aerial campaign and the scattering of land mines in thousands of villages. The military has enforced conscription and is kidnapping young men from the streets to fill its ranks.
For the hundreds of Myanmar refugees already cleared to go to the United States, the prospect of an indefinite immigration halt is yet another hardship in lives beset by conflict, poverty and insecurity. Saw Htun Htun said his wife and two daughters are already resettled in Vermont. He is supposed to fly to the United States in late February but said he has little hope the trip will go forward.
“My heart is weak, and I am scared that I will never see my family again,” he said. “Please pray for me to go to the U.S.”
Thinking he was on his way to America, Mr. Steel Wah Doh quit his laboratory job at his refugee camp in Thailand. His father, who also hopes to be resettled in the United States, cannot get the medical checkups he needs for his immigration paperwork because camp clinics have been shut by Mr. Trump’s funding freeze.
Lifesaving American aid is supposed to be exempted from the spending ban, but health facilities remain closed. Two nonprofit representatives said they have been told that they will need to fund programs themselves before receiving reimbursements from American aid agencies. What constitutes lifesaving aid has not been made clear to them, they said.
In the Rohingya refugee camps, health clinics, learning centers and sanitation programs funded by the United States have also shut down. In one of the most densely packed places on earth, sewers are overflowing, posing the threat of disease, residents say.
Suffering from heart and kidney disease, Gul Bahar has walked through the muck to an American-funded clinic several times over the past two weeks, only to be turned away.
“I have no hope,” she said.
In Lakewood, Ohio, Mr. Steel Wah Doh’s cousin, Lay Htoo, 19, said he felt terrible for his relatives who didn’t show up as expected.
Mr. Htoo was nearly 8 when he and his family moved to the United States. He spoke no English.
His father is now a mechanic at a factory that makes gambling materials. Mr. Htoo is studying health at a community college, the first in his family to access higher education.
Now an American citizen, Mr. Htoo said he did not vote in last year’s elections. Some of the other Myanmar refugees in town, including family friends, he said, support Mr. Trump because they consider him to be a talented businessman.
“To be honest, living in those refugee camps, I remember it, and it’s not even 100 percent living,” Mr. Htoo said. “If I were still stuck there and I knew that other people voted for a guy who overturned my opportunity for a new life, I’d be extremely livid.”
Saiful Arakani contributed reporting from Teknaf, Bangladesh.
