WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 U.S. 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 temporary legal status for a total of 600,000 people from Venezuela while lawsuits play out. That exposed them to potential deportation amid the administration's wider crackdown on immigration.
The Trump administration filed emergency appeals after lower courts stopped the immediate end of the program for 350,000 people from Haiti and 6,000 people from Syria.
The administration asked the court to lift those decisions and issue a broad ruling that would block courts from intervening when Homeland Security decides to end protections.
The Justice Department argued that the Department of Homeland Security has sole power over the program, which was designed to be temporary.
“Lower courts are again attempting to block major executive-branch policy initiatives in ways that inflict specific harms to the national interest and foreign relations,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in court documents.
But immigration attorneys argued that both countries are still largely in crisis and people can't return safely.
“Without a functioning government, Haiti is a nation in turmoil. Rape, kidnapping, and murder are rampant, while food, housing, and medical care are scarce,” attorneys wrote, pointing to reports that four Haitian women were recently found dead months after they were deported from the U.S.
Courts in New York and Washington, D.C., 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. During his presidential campaign, Trump amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants were abducting and eating dogs and cats.
Appeals courts left the decisions in place.
A total of about 1.3 million people fleeing armed conflict, natural disasters and political instability in countries around the world have been granted temporary protected status. Federal authorities have said conditions in the affected countries have improved and denied racial animus played a role.
The protections for Haitians were first granted in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake and have been extended multiple times amid ongoing gang violence that has displaced more than a million people, according to court documents.
Protections for Syrians were first granted protected status in 2012, during a civil war that lasted for more than a decade before the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government in late 2024.
Congress created TPS in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters, civil strife or other dangerous conditions. The designation is granted in 18-month increments by the Homeland Security secretary.
It allows people to legally live and work in the U.S., though it does not provide a path to citizenship. DHS has moved to terminate the program for people from multiple countries since Republican Donald Trump returned to the White House.
The U.S. Supreme Court as seen during a snowy day on Capitol Hill Thursday, March 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chaotic weather, from surprising heat in California to damaging winds around Washington, D.C., put over half the U.S. population in the path of extreme conditions Monday.
Storms across the nation's eastern half forced airlines to cancel roughly 4,000 flights nationwide Monday, and many schools closed early in the mid-Atlantic states, where high winds and tornadoes were in the forecast for the evening.
Blizzards buried parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota while torrential rains flooded homes and washed out roads in Hawaii.
In Washington, the House and Senate postponed votes because of difficulty traveling with inclement weather, and federal agencies told workers to go home early.
Airport delays and cancellations piled up Monday in some of the nation’s largest airports — including those in New York, Chicago and Atlanta.
The private weather service AccuWeather calculated that more than 200 million people were under threat Monday of some kind of dangerous weather.
Those range from extreme heat and wildfire advisories to flood and freeze watches from the National Weather Service.
The storm system that dropped snow by the foot in the Midwest barreled toward the East Coast with dangerously high winds and potential for “producing strong and long track tornadoes,” the weather service warned Monday.
“Wind is the primary threat, but within any of these areas of strong wind there could be some embedded tornadoes and even the potential for a tornado to develop ahead of the line,” said Evan Bentley, a meteorologist with the weather service.
The biggest threat stretched from Maryland to the upper edge of South Carolina.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein urged residents to enable emergency alerts on their phones ahead of expected gusts topping 70 mph (112 kph).
Blizzard conditions continued in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes on Monday after the storm walloped parts of Wisconsin and Michigan with several feet of snow.
Since Saturday, nearly 3 feet (61 centimeters) had fallen in the northern Wisconsin town of Mountain.
Another round of snow and gusts on Monday could bring another foot of snow across Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
A heat dome over the Southwest will push temperatures well into the triple digits in Arizona most of the week, much earlier than normal.
California is starting to feel like summer too. The San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento will see temperatures pushing toward 90 F (32 C) by midweek.
“This is a heat wave that we have not seen before in recorded history in the Southwest,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Dan DePodwin.
Phoenix is expected to have five straight days of triple digit temperatures this week — only once before, in 1988, has the city recorded a 100 F (37.8 C) day in March, DePodwin said.
Dry and windy conditions were charging the largest wildfire in Nebraska’s history. Fires in the state have consumed more than 937 square miles (2,428 square kilometers) of mostly grassland.
Unrelenting rains triggered landslides, washed away roads and flooded homes and farmland in Hawaii over the weekend.
All of Hawaii’s islands had spots with more than 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain while parts of Maui were overwhelmed with double that amount, the weather service said.
While the worst of the storm has passed, more heavy rain is expected later this week. Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said there were no reports of injuries or deaths and crews were assessing damage.
Forecasters said the East Coast storms were expected leave sharply colder weather in its wake.
The storm will stick around parts of the Northeast until Tuesday morning. By then, wind chills below freezing were expected to reach the Gulf Coast and the Florida Panhandle with warnings in effect across the Southeast and in part of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas, forecasters warned.
To the north, rain was expected to change over to snow behind the cold front with heavy snow possible in the central Appalachians of West Virginia.
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Brumfield reported from Cockeysville, Maryland, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Julie Walker in New York; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and Gary Fields in Washington contributed.
People watch as storms roll over the U.S. Capitol Monday, March 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Morning traffic is seen on Lake Shore Drive, after the overnight snow, Monday, March 16, 2026, in downtown Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
Dense fog and low clouds cover parts of the George Washington Bridge as seen from Fort Lee, N.J., Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A person bundles up and fishes on a breakwater by Montrose Harbor, Monday morning, March 16, 2026, in downtown Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
A man shovels snow after a snowstorm Monday, March 16, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Snow is plowed after a snowstorm Monday, March 16, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Victor Alomoto who is from Ecuador cleared the sidewalk for the River Valley Church in the North Loop Pedestrians during the snow storm in Minneapolis, Minn., on Sunday, March 15, 2026.(Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)
Ogo Akpati and his son Brycson Akpati, 3, braved the strong winds and had fun sliding down a hill in Central Park Sunday, March 15,2026 in Brooklyn Park, MN. (Jerry Holt/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)
Fans walk through snowy streets before an NHL hockey game between the Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs, Sunday, March 15, 2026, in St. Paul. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
People drive on a snow-covered freeway during a snow storm Sunday, March 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)
Workers clear snow off the ground Sunday, March 15, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
