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Mark C. Thies| The Fayetteville Observer

American workers are still reeling from widespread layoffs. Nearly 1 million Americans filed for first-timeunemploymentbenefits at the end of September, bringing the cumulative total to more than 55 million since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

President Trump made a bold move to pause major guest worker programs until the end of the year, and that should be applauded. However, the presidentcando even more tohelpput Americans back to work. Fortunately, we already have an existing federal program that could open up job opportunities for millions of citizens.

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E-Verifyis a free, electronic system that prevents businesses from hiring illegal aliens. By mandating that all employers use it, the administration could create countless new job opportunities and provide much-needed economic relief for America's struggling working class.

The system is remarkably easy to use. Employers simply visit the online database and input the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of newly hired employees. The system then cross-references that data with other federal records to determine usually within a few seconds whether or not the employee is eligible to work in the United States.

E-Verifyis extremely accurate. Within one day, the system verifies almost all 99% of new employees as eligible for work. Of the remaining 1% who receive "tentative non-confirmations," the vast majority turn out to be illegal aliens.

DespiteE-Verify's demonstrated success, 90% of businesses don't use it. And that's often a deliberate decision. Profit-hungry businesses don't vet their employees because illegal immigrants are willing to work for far lower wages than their native-born counterparts. Nearly four in 10 illegal aliens have been paid less than minimum wage. This wage fleecing enriches employers by $128 billion annually.

America's working class which is already struggling financially in these COVID times suffers the most from this illegal competition. Over the past two decades, an influx of illegal aliens has increased the number of low-skilled workers by approximately 20%. This excess competition has depressed the wages of native-born workers without high school diplomas by almost 4%.

It's not just high school dropouts who are negatively affected, though. When the size of a labor pool such as high school graduates increases by 10%, wages for native workers fall 2.5%, on average.

It's for these reasons that a handful of states including Arizona, Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina require all employers to useE-Verifyfor new hires.

The results speak for themselves. States that have implemented mandatoryE-Verifyhave recorded a 40%drop, on average, in their populations of recently arrived illegal immigrants within one year of implementation. That's hardly surprising turning off the jobs magnet eliminates the primary incentive for illegal workers to come here.

Widespread adoption of this reformcan't come soon enough. Already, an estimated 11 million illegal aliens reside in the United States and roughly 8 million of them are employed. Hundreds of thousands more will join their ranks this year.

Meanwhile amid the COVID-19 pandemic and recession tens of millions of Americans currently find themselves unemployed.

President Trump needs to makeE-Verifya key plank in his reelection platform, and then work with a future Congress to mandate it nationwide. He could humanely stem the number of illegal aliens flocking to the United States, decreasing competition for those increasingly scarce jobs.

We knowE-Verifyis effective in deterring illegal immigration and opening up job opportunities for Americans. Now it's up to our nation's chief executive to answer citizens' pleas and put them back to work.

Dr. Thies is the Dow Chemical Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Clemson University whose research is focused on sustainability.

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Trump should advocate E-Verify to help solve the unemployment crisis - The Fayetteville Observer