The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will hear arguments in Trump v. Miot, a case challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to end a program that allows several thousand Syrians and Haitians to live temporarily in the United States.

Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, is a humanitarian program created by Congress in 1990. It shields nationals of designated countries from deportation and allows them to obtain work authorization when conditions in their home countries – such as armed conflict, environmental disasters or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions” – make safe return impossible.

After the administration moved to terminate such designations for Haiti and Syria, several groups of plaintiffs filed suit. Lower courts ruled against the administration, blocking the terminations.

Last week, the administration asked the Supreme Court for an emergency stay and urged the justices to take up the case immediately on the merits, bypassing further proceedings in the courts of appeals. 

A final decision could come as early as May.

The government argues lower courts were improperly interfering with the executive branch’s authority over immigration policy and noted that other TPS terminations – including one affecting Venezuela – had been allowed to proceed.

In a rare Monday afternoon order, the justices agreed to hear Trump v. Miot, along with a companion case involving Syrian TPS holders, Noem v. Doe. The court scheduled the cases for oral argument during the second week of its April sitting – an unusually fast timeline. Most cases granted this late in the Term are instead set for argument the following Term, which begins in October.

The court, however, declined the administration’s request for an immediate stay. As a result, TPS protections for Haitians – and the associated work permits – will remain in place while the case is briefed and argued.