There is currently much uncertainty surrounding the future of the Temporary Protected Status Program (TPS). The Trump Administration has continually attacked the program’s existence during the first months of President Trump’s new term. This note acknowledges the precarious position both the TPS program and beneficiaries of TPS are in and considers an issue often overlooked in modern-day discussions about the program. As TPS designations are terminated, beneficiaries of TPS lose their work authorization and, therefore, their ability to legally work in the United States. At the same time, however, beneficiaries of TPS can fight for their work authorization in the courts. This note argues that the work authorization afforded to beneficiaries of TPS represents a due process interest in property because of the essential nature of work authorization, as well as the fact that beneficiaries of TPS have a legitimate claim of entitlement to their work authorization. Because work authorization represents a property interest, beneficiaries of TPS cannot be deprived of their work authorization without the procedural due process guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. This procedural due process seems to require complete and timely hearings for each TPS beneficiary that decides to sue, but may also include alternate remedies, such as claims under 5 U.S.C. § 706.

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