The administration had asked the court to allow it to end deportation protections for more than 500,000 people facing dire humanitarian crises in their home countries.

The administration can now cancel a Biden-era humanitarian program that allowed immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to live and work in the US legally.

An appeal that landed at the Supreme Court Tuesday could test the justices’ emerging concern about President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation policies and whether he is willing to defy judicial orders.