This story will be updated.
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that the Trump administration can go forward with mass deportations of people from Haiti with temporary immigration protections.
The court ruled 6-3 that the president has virtually unrestrained power to end the Temporary Protected Status program, known as TPS.
This protected status is the legal way that most of the estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitians came to the Springfield area.
Congress enacted the TPS program in 1990 for people from countries that have experienced violence, natural disasters or other unsafe conditions. It had bipartisan support for decades.
Then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem terminated Haiti's TPS status last year in response to a Trump executive order. She said no extraordinary conditions exist that prevent Haitians from going home and that continuing TPS for them " is contrary to the national interest."
At one point, the designation was set to end Feb. 3, but the night before, Federal District Judge Ana Reyes issued a hold to prevent this while a lawsuit filed by Haitian plaintiffs plays out.
The lawsuit had since been making its way through the courts until today's decision.
Currently there are 17 countries that have been designated with TPS.