More than half-a-billion dollars is the cost that the Congressional Budget Office estimates it will take to run “E‑Verify,” the federal government’s immigration background-check system, for five more years. That’s about five dollars per U.S. family, according to WashingtonWatch.com’s net present value calculation. (Disclosure: I run that site.)

Think that’s not much? Take five dollars out of your wallet and tear it up. Then imagine every family in the country tearing up five dollars at the dinner table — before eating a meal made more expensive by the dearth of good workers in the United States to grow, harvest, process, ship, and vend their food.

E‑Verify is about spending money to worsen our country’s economic situation. And if E‑Verify were to go national, it would be used to give the federal government even more regulatory control over law-abiding Americans.

My paper on the topic is “Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification: Franz Kafka’s Solution to Illegal Immigration.”