As long as there are U.S. employers willing to hire illegal immigrants, illegal border crossings will remain desirable and lucrative. Even the best concrete wall won’t change that.

What could change it is making it more difficult to for employers to hire illegal immigrants. Without job prospects in the U.S., migrants will no longer find the trip worthwhile, and as the recent recession showed, many will return home.

E-Verify, an online service run by the Department of Homeland Security, does just that. It allows employers to quickly and easily determine if their employees are eligible to work in the United States.

As the website explains, it works by “electronically matching information provided by employees on the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, against records available on the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).”

That’s even better than a wall as it addresses the real problem at the heart of illegal immigration, not just a symptom. But unfortunately, E-Verify is one of the many government programs affected by the shutdown.

As the bright red message at the top of the webpage reads, “Due to the lapse in federal funding, this website will not be actively managed.” Adding, “E-Verify and E-Verify services are unavailable.”



#EVerify is not available due to lapse in DHS appropriations. https://t.co/xzw4doYGww — USCIS E-Verify (@EVerify) December 22, 2018



That means that while President Donald Trump talks the talk of border security, the jobs that are pulling immigrants to the country in the first place are easy pickings for illegal immigrants. The barrier to their getting hired has been temporarily removed.

Lawmakers serious about addressing immigration would be better served by bolstering the existing electronic wall, and fixing inaccuracies in the database, enforcement and other issues with E-Verify, then by holding that program, and the rest of the government, hostage for some steel slats at the border.