The supreme court will hear arguments over the Trump administration’s push to end legal protections for people fleeing war and natural disaster from countries around the world, including Haiti and Syria.
The justices refused to immediately lift the protections for hundreds of thousands of people Monday, allowing them to live and work in the US legally for now.
The court is expected to hear the case next month.
The conservative-majority court has sided with the Trump administration on the issue before and allowed the end of similar legal protections for a total of 600,000 people from Venezuela while lawsuits play out, exposing them to potential deportation.
The Trump administration filed emergency appeals after lower courts stopped the immediate end of temporary protected status for 350,000 people from Haiti and 6,000 people from Syria.
The justice department argued that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has sole power to end the protections, which were originally designed to be temporary.
But immigration attorneys argued that both countries are still largely in crisis and people can’t return safely.
Courts in New York and Washington DC, have agreed to delay the end of protections, with one finding that “hostility to nonwhite immigrants” likely played a role in the decision to end protections for Haitians. Appeals courts left the decisions in place.
A total of about 1.3 million people fleeing armed conflict and natural disasters around the world have been granted temporary protected status. The administration is asking the court for a broad ruling that would block courts from intervening when homeland security decides to end a designation.
Authorities have said conditions in the affected countries have improved and denied racial animus played a role.
Temporary protected status allows people to legally live and work in the US, though it does not provide a path to citizenship. Homeland security has moved to terminate the program for people from multiple countries since Donald Trump returned to the White House.