Who Needs Permission to Work?
In plain words
People from Florida don't need the government's permission to get a job in Denver. Someone from Venezuela shouldn't either. If you're already here and willing to do honest work, no permission slip should stand between you and feeding your family.
The amendment
The right of all persons to engage in lawful work and to earn a living shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of immigration or citizenship status. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
› "But what about…?" Read the objections.
Doesn't this just mean anyone can show up and take a job?
People from Florida don't need anyone's permission to get a job in Denver. Why should it be different for someone from Venezuela? Who gets let into the country is a separate question. This is about the people already here: if you're willing to do honest work, you shouldn't need a permission slip to feed your family.
Won't this take jobs away from citizens?
Jobs aren't a fixed pile that runs out. More people working means more building, more hiring, more business, and luckily that gets easier with more workers, not harder. What actually drags everyone's wages down is keeping people in the shadows, where no rules protect anybody.
Why should someone who isn't a citizen have the same right to work?
People aren't given rights by a piece of paper. They're born with them, no matter where they're from. The people already here working, raising kids, and part of our community ARE our neighbors, whatever their paperwork says. Pretending they don't exist doesn't make them disappear. It just keeps them in the shadows.
Draft objections. In the finished site each amendment links out to its own deeper conversation. This is the seed of that.