Trump’s excuse for shutting down the federal government is that Congressional Democrats have refused to provide billions of American taxpayer dollars so he can fund an imaginary “border wall," the purpose of which, in theory, is to keep undocumented immigrants from entering the United States and “stealing" American jobs.
In the process, however, Trump shut down the government’s E-Verify system, used by over 400,000 U.S. employers to verify employee citizenship and eligibility for employment.
E-Verify is a web-based system that allows enrolled employers to confirm the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States. E-Verify employers verify the identity and employment eligibility of newly hired employees by electronically matching information provided by employees on the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, against records available to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
From the Department of You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up:
E-Verify—the federal electronic employment eligibility verification service—has expired due to a lapse in funding and will not be available during the partial shutdown of the U.S. government that began Dec. 22.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the program, announced that the website www.e-verify.gov will not be actively managed and will not be updated until after funding is restored. The agency reported that "information on this website may not be up to date. Transactions submitted via this website might not be processed and we will not be able to respond to inquiries until after appropriations are enacted."
So until the government shutdown ends, there is no way for employers to tell whether they have, in fact, hired a U.S. citizen, or one of those spooky 7-year old “terrorists” pining for a minimum-wage American job. And as a result, HR firms and employment lawyers are getting panicked calls from E-Verify subscribers who have no idea what they should do.
During the shutdown, employers will not be able to enroll in the program; access their E-Verify accounts; create a case; view or take action on any case; add, delete or edit accounts; reset passwords, edit company information, terminate accounts, or run reports.
Although its effectiveness at actually reducing the influx of undocumented immigrants is debatable, E-Verify remains a favorite talking point of the right. It was emphasized just last week by the Center for Immigration Studies, a right-wing anti-immigrant think tank. The CIS advocates nationalizing the E-Verify service—i.e., making it mandatory for all employers.
The Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates for lower immigration, is calling on President Donald Trump to nationalize the E-Verify system used by the federal government to check the legal status of potential workers.
“There are many changes that could be made to the immigration laws that would enable the United States to gain control over its illegal population,” former judge Andrew R. Arthur, now a legal expert for CIS, told the Washington Examiner.
Guess that’s not going to happen any time soon, huh?