Good Labor
In plain words
People from Florida don't need the government's permission to get a job in Denver. Someone from abroad 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
Section 1. The right of every individual present within the United States to engage in any occupation that would be lawful if engaged in by a citizen, and to earn a living thereby, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of immigration or citizenship status.
Section 2. Nothing in this article shall (a) restrict the power of the United States or any State to require citizenship, nationality, or security eligibility for public office, government employment, military service, access to classified information, or work directly affecting national defense or foreign affairs; or (b) confer any right to enter, remain in, or avoid removal from the United States, or limit the power to regulate the admission, presence, or removal of noncitizens.
Section 3. 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.
So a foreign national gets a constitutional right to a job at a nuclear plant or a defense lab?
No. The citizenship rules for security clearances, classified work, the military, and government jobs all stay right where they are. That's written into the amendment itself. And nobody can demand a job anyway. This is a right not to be shut out of honest work over your paperwork, not a right to be handed a position. It's about the person who wants to lay tile and feed their kids, not the launch codes. Someone from Florida can't walk into Los Alamos and demand a clearance either.
So once someone gets a job, you can never deport them?
No. This is permission to work, not permission to stay, and the amendment says so directly: it doesn't touch who gets to enter, remain, or be removed. Whether someone can stay still runs through immigration court and due process, exactly like today. All it says is that while you're here, feeding your family with honest work isn't itself a crime. Working and staying are two different doors.
Draft objections. In the finished site each amendment links out to its own deeper conversation. This is the seed of that.