This Tuesday, ICE unearthed a massive fraud scheme. Over 10,000 foreign students in the federal STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT) program are tied to “suspect employers”.
ICE Director Todd Lyons stated that these 10,000 visa students are connected to the top 25 OPT employers and are “just the tip of the iceberg”.
ICE investigations visited OPT employers in Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Florida.
What they found was shocking: empty buildings, locked doors, multiple employers at the same address, and small homes listed as worksites. Some of the suspect employers also had offshore personnel, tax liens, civil lawsuit collections, and breaches of contract.
OPT is a work authorization for students on an F-1 visa that temporarily allows them to work in a job directly related to their current field of study and gain hands-on experience. The OPT program is often used as a bridge to attain an H-1B visa, and there is no annual cap on it.
Instead of providing legitimate practical training tied to real employment, the program has been widely exploited by staffing firms and shell companies to manufacture employment records, enabling students to dishonestly overstay their time in the US, while supplying cheap labor to undercut American workers. This systemic abuse proves that OPT has become a backdoor loophole that undermines US citizens, distorts the labor market, and erodes public trust in the student visa system.
Just like the H-1B visa, OPT is a detriment to law-abiding Americans, whether they be students competing with floods of foreigners or domestic businesses disadvantaged by foreign shell companies.
OPT can be ended by the President without congressional approval since it was created entirely through DHS regulations with no basis in law. Texans for Strong Borders supports ending the OPT program, H-1B visa, and any other immigration program or visa that has become riddled with fraud and harmful to the American people.