Despite President Trump's efforts to give illegal migrants the boot — from ramped-up I-9 audits to a new English rule for the trucking industry and the raids that motivated staffers at Kid Rock's Nashville joint to knock off early for a weekend in May — legions of the obstinate aliens are still fighting to stay in the United States.

Observers could be forgiven for wondering who — other than Kid Rock — provides the job opportunities they find compelling enough to stay. One answer might be the gig economy — led by Uber, Lyft, and other companies that evade responsibility for screening their employees by classifying them as independent contractors.

If a rising number of anecdotal accounts serve as any indicator, at least some of the migrants jettisoned from their old jobs appear to be finding work in that corner of the economy. Uber drivers on Reddit—who ordinarily skew far to the left—have increasingly lamented migrants' ability to buy Uber driver accounts, which can go for a paltry $500 and allow them to begin working under someone else's stolen identity.

Uber and its competitors have opted against taking any steps that might reveal the scope of the problem. This means that consequences generally become public only when the company's illegal contractors make driving-related mistakes—such as when a Reddit user posted a video in May showing a driver asking his hapless passenger after an accident, "Can you say you were driving? Because I don't have a f**ing valid license, dude." 

An Uber Eats driver from El Salvador, meanwhile, made headlines in April by making a wrong turn into Canada — landing himself in the custody of Customs and Border Patrol.

However, the nonprofit Tech Transparency Project took a crack at it with a study published in April, which found more than 800,000 Facebook users participating in "dozens of black market groups" centered on buying, selling, and renting accounts that enabled them to work for "Uber, DoorDash, and other rideshare and delivery apps."

TTP noted that the groups felt no need to conceal their activity, using group names such as "Uber Delivery Drivers Account for Rent" and "Door Dash Account Renting USA." After being cajoled by TTP, Meta issued a terse statement about its stance against "buying, selling, or trading" personal information, while Uber said it used "robust safeguards" to verify "the person using an account is the rightful owner."

Whatever those vague but robust measures might be, they notably do not include I-9 verification — or, for that matter, asking drivers whether they are in the United States legally. Maybe that should come as no surprise, given Uber Chief Legal Officer Tony West's connection to former Vice President Kamala Harris — his sister-in-law — and that nearly 85% of its employees' political contributions in 2024 went to Democrats. These people have a vested interest in seeing the United States fail.

When asked to comment on this column, an Uber spokesman said the company did not "have a specific comment" but pointed out that it checks registered drivers "continuously" for new criminal records. Lyft did not respond to a request for comment.

It bears noting that the company's tightlipped representatives felt more talkative in 2024, when Business Insider published a story that sought to put a positive spin on the issue, pressing gig companies — especially Uber and Lyft — to raise pay for illegal migrants, saying they had become "the new Ellis Island for migrants looking for work." A Lyft spokesman told the publication that the company was proud to offer job opportunities to those "trying to establish themselves in a new place." In contrast, an Uber spokesman said something about its desire to support refugees.

The companies have done little to contribute to the policy changes Americans voted for in the 2024 election. They represent some very low-hanging fruit that the president should consider targeting shortly.

What should they do? First, they could at least ask their employees (sorry, contractors) if they are legally in the U.S. Better yet, they could start offering English as the sole option for those using their services. (After all, it became America's official language in March under Executive Order 14224.)

To ensure that these measures and any others that the companies can think up are beneficial, border chief Tom Homan should develop a plan to start screening gig workers at random. This approach might call for some spontaneous dragnets targeted at rideshare companies. If the findings indicate that illegal laborers have not been deterred, Matt Crapo — a senior counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute — pointed out in a comment on this topic that the administration could impose "penalties for employers who hire illegal aliens."

Despite Trump's efforts, the blight of illegal labor is lingering in America's economy. It will be hard to entirely snuff out unless the administration turns its attention to Uber, Lyft, and the cadre of radical leftists who are using them to undermine the president's policies.

Rudy Takala is a political analyst who has served as an editor or reporter for publications that include Fox News, the Washington Examiner, The Hill, and others. Follow him on X at @RudyTakala.