OPINION:
President Trump promised during his campaign that, if elected, he would finish the job he had started in the first term — namely, he would fix America’s broken immigration system and stop the slow-motion invasion of the United States. The good news is that he has been better than his word concerning securing the border.
The bad news is that there are still perhaps as many as 20 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. Deporting that many people, even if desirable, would be extraordinarily difficult. Mr. Trump is doing what he can: enforcing our immigration laws and deporting illegal aliens when circumstances allow. Unfortunately, he is not getting a lot of help. Instead of standing with Mr. Trump and supporting our country’s laws, those on the left (of course) and some companies and associations are resisting.
For example, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts operations near Home Depot, the company encourages employees to leave work with pay if they feel uncomfortable. “We’re not notified when raids are going to happen, and we are not involved in the operations,” said Margaret Smith, a spokesperson for Home Depot. “When ICE arrives at a parking lot or outside one of our stores, we ask our associates to report it immediately, not engage with the activity, and if associates feel uncomfortable after witnessing ICE activity, we offer associates the option to go home for the day with pay.”
The National Restaurant Association has released a memo advising restaurants on how to best handle ICE and the enforcement of our nation’s laws. The memo states in part, “Of course, creating new HR solutions that properly sync with the new government portal may prove to be quite difficult. We do not recommend whether to use E-Verify.”
Uh-oh. E-Verify is, of course, a web-based system that allows enrolled employers to confirm the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States. The program is simple and effective at ensuring that jobs go to legal workers. If the businesses, which certainly include restaurants, that employ illegal immigrants in this nation, confirmed the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States, they wouldn’t be pushing back on the activities of ICE or lobbying for new foreign labor pipelines.
It is a complete mystery why E-Verify, which is simple and cheap, isn’t an absolute requirement for employers. Well, maybe not a complete mystery. The sad truth of illegal immigration is that many employers are happy to violate the law and employ illegal immigrants because those workers suppress wages and, of course, they make no trouble in the workplace. If we really want to address illegal immigration, we need to require E-Verify, and we need to increase the penalties we impose on those who employ illegal immigrants.
The voters appear to agree. A recent survey of 1,037 likely voters (conducted July 14-15) sponsored by the Protecting America Initiative found that 64% of Americans believe companies should use (and the government should require) E-Verify to determine employment eligibility and prevent illegal immigrants from taking American jobs.
Voters understand that if you are serious about reducing illegal immigration, you have to get serious about reducing the incentives to break the law. That includes illegal immigrants and those who hire them. The choke point in the illegal immigration ecosystem is the people who hire illegal immigrants. Our border security challenge would be greatly simplified if we started to arrest business owners and executives who are complicit in illegal immigration.
If you want to reduce incentives to immigrate illegally to the United States, if you want to encourage self-deportation, if you want to create pressure to reform the immigration system and reward hard work and achievement, you need to be in favor of E-Verify. Any proposed long-term solution to our immigration challenges that does not include E-Verify cannot be considered serious.
• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor at The Washington Times.
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