EDITORS' CORNER
OPINION
Colleges reported a 14 percent increase in students using a program called Optional Practical Training, which allows foreigners to undercut American workers.
OPT allows students, who promised that they were coming here just to study, to work for one year or two years in the country as long as the job is related to their college degree. In practice, this is a backdoor worker visa program which harms Americans, particularly recent college grads.
“Colleges and universities reported a 2 percent increase in undergraduate students, a 14 percent increase in Optional Practical Training students and a 12 percent decrease in graduate students,” Inside Higher Ed reported, based on its review of the annual Open Doors Report. The State Department-backed report reviews higher education immigration trends.
Optional Practical Training is used by some visa holders to violate the terms of their agreement and game the system so they can improve their chances of obtaining an H1-B. When students apply for a visa to study in the United States, they are supposed to promise not to use the system to seek to gain citizenship. It is for a specific purpose – to come here and obtain a college degree and then go home.
But over the years, immigration advocates, including big business, have created a student visa to OPT to H1-B pipeline, without proper legal authorization.
Expert Elizabeth Jacobs explained to Newsweek: ‘First, the program has not been authorized by Congress, yet serves as an uncapped and taxpayer-subsidized workaround or ‘supplement’ to the H-1B program,” she said.
“Congress created limits to work authorization in order to protect the domestic labor force,” Jacobs, an expert with the Center for Immigration Studies, said. “Any exceptions to these caps must be approved by Congress.”
She stated further:
Second, F-1 visa holders who participate in the OPT program after graduation should not have work authorization requests approved by DHS because they are no longer meeting the requirements of their immigration status. An F-1 visa holder is admitted to the United States for the purpose of pursuing a full course of study at an accredited academic institution. Once the student graduates, that purpose ends—so unless they take immediate steps to maintain status under the F-1 regulations, they are no longer maintaining lawful F-1 status.
The administration is reportedly seeking to curtail the program, although details remain unclear.
OPT students do not pay Social Security and Medicare taxes, which make them a more lucrative option for employers.
Supporters of the program argue that they do not undercut American workers because they are only here for up to two years. But that ignores that there are always more foreign students behind them to hire.
Trump’s changes to the program should ensure American college students are not being displaced by foreigners.
MORE: Nearly 200,000 foreign workers classified as ‘students’
