President Trump is being encouraged to sign an executive order on E-Verify after immigration police said that arrests of illegal immigrant workers and employers surged 700 percent.

Led by advocates of tighter immigration laws, Trump is getting advice to nationalize the E-Verify system that the federal government uses to make sure that contractors are hiring employees that are legally allowed to work in the United States.

“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,” said Andrew R. Arthur, a former immigration judge.

“Of all of the proposals, however, E-Verify would be the most effective at curbing illegal entries and limiting nonimmigrant overstays. And the president could likely make it mandatory through executive action,” added Arthur, now a legal expert with the Center for Immigration Studies.

The push for the simple employment verification system, currently a voluntary opt-in for nongovernment contractors, comes after Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed stunning new statistics of workplace enforcement investigations.

The agency and Homeland Security Investigations, which had promised to step up investigations, announced a 300 percent surge in probes. They “opened” 6,848 work-site investigations in fiscal 2018 versus 1,691 the year before. Audits jumped to 5,981 from 1,360.

Work-site arrests surged even more. The authorities made 779 criminal and 1,525 administrative work-site-related arrests compared to 139 and 172, said ICE in this Washington Examiner report by Anna Giaritelli.

In a legal analysis of E-Verify, Arthur wrote Friday that with a 60-day notice, Trump could institute the employment verification system.

He added that it has a side benefit: those who illegally enter the United States to work and are denied a job often return home on their own.

And, Arthur added, E-Verify has a strong presidential record of bipartisan support and action. He wrote:

