President Trump’s FY 2018 budget request, unveiled last week, includes a $15 million line item to make E-Verify mandatory for all employers. It could be the best $15 million Congress spends next year, addressing two key concerns expressed by voters in 2016: unchecked illegal immigration and the erosion of middle class jobs in the United States.

E-Verify is a proven system that allows employers to instantly verify that the people they are hiring are legally entitled to hold a job in the United States. It is extremely accurate and employers who are currently using it give the system high marks. Most importantly, E-Verify protects the jobs of legal U.S. workers.

The congressional Democratic leadership is almost certain to oppose any stand-alone measure to make E-Verify mandatory and will likely demand that it be tied to some sort of amnesty for illegal aliens. But they are in a very weak bargaining position. With a slew of vulnerable Senate Democrats facing reelection next year in red or purple states, it is hard to imagine that many of them would want to explain to their constituents why they are standing in the way of protecting the jobs of American workers.