Government Overhaul Must End OPT

Congress is waking up to the realization that the bottomless pit of employment visas has a detrimental effect on American workers. A wide variety of temporary work visas create jobs paths for foreign nationals at citizens’ expense. Rep. Paul Gosar introduced a new bill, H.R. 2315, The Fairness for High-Skilled Americans Act, that would end the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program which provides incentives for employers to hire foreign students from U.S. colleges instead of American graduates. At stake are high-paid white-collar jobs.

For decades, the most detrimental employment-based visa has displaced American workers and hindered job-seeking, recent college graduates. Optional Practical Training (OPT) has never been congressionally approved but was created through President George W. Bush’s fiat. OPT evolved over cocktails at a Georgetown party that involved then-Department of Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff and a Microsoft lobbyist whose goal was to maneuver around the 65,000 H-1B visa cap.

Since President Donald Trump is on a mission to restore credibility to and confidence in the government, he should take a hard look at OPT, one of the most egregious violations of federal law and the F-1 visa’s illegitimate child. Back up to when Congress created the H-1B visa as part of the Immigration Act of 1990 which established a 65,000 cap for foreign-born workers who supposedly have the training and educational background to work in high-skill tech industry jobs. In fiscal year 1997, the 65,000 cap was reached for the first time on September 1. Then reacting to employers’ request for more H-1B visas, but without taking into account the abundant availability of U.S. tech workers, Congress temporarily increased the cap for fiscal years 1999-2000 to 115,000 and for 2001-2003 to 107,500. A Judiciary Committee report explained the rationale for the temporary increase: “It is in the nation’s interest that the quota for H-1B aliens be temporarily raised.” The increases went into effect without congressional debate that would have laid out their negative effect on U.S. workers.

Finally, frustrated that employers could not get a congressionally approved cap increase, Microsoft lobbyist Jack Krumholtz met with Chertoff to lean on the DHS secretary for help in what he alleged was an H-1B visa shortage. Krumholtz pressed Chertoff for an OPT increase; his idea was to extend the length of existing practical training regulations so they could function as a new guest worker program that would help employers get around H-1B regulations. Months later, Chertoff’s DHS published a rule extending STEM OPT to 29 months with a further 2016 extension to 36 months. DHS, in its own words, confirmed that the OPT extension was a way to circumvent Congress’ cap on H-1Bs, a policy explicitly implemented to protect American workers and students. OPT authorizations, unlike H-1Bs, are uncapped.

The Bush administration created the current OPT designations for F-1 students with science, technology, engineering and math degrees (STEM) program by executive fiat; the Obama administration expanded it further; and the Biden administration added 22 new fields of study to the program. As a result of constantly increasing the time limit and adding more professions that can transfer from F-1 student visa into OPT, today the U.S.’s largest guest worker program. Fewer than half of all STEM graduates find careers in their fields, yet another reason to eliminate the brazenly anti-U.S. tech worker scam.

Because employers don’t have to pay FICA or Medicare taxes, they save roughly 8 percent in payroll costs when they hire a foreign national instead of an American. OPT workers often hold jobs that range from $60,000-$90,000 a year, but they cost Social Security and Medicare about $4 billion dollars annually. Numbers crunchers predict that, at their current pace, Social Security and Medicare might be bankrupt by the mid-2030s. Giving OPT workers waivers on paying into those vital programs is self-defeating. As of 2023, there are 539,382 foreign students authorized to work through the practical training program. Nearly 540,000 foreign nationals hold jobs in the U.S. without any FICA taxes taken out of their paychecks. OPT allows foreign students to work for up to a year after graduation. There are currently 276,452 foreign students who have received employment authorization to work under OPT. Another version is STEM OPT, an extension of the OPT program which allows for an additional two years of work authorization for a three-year total. Currently, 122,101 foreign students have received employment authorization to work under STEM OPT. Foreign students can obtain a second three-year period of work authorization if they obtain a second degree, for a lifetime total of six years. Finally, the Curricular Practical Training (CPT), allows foreign students to work while still enrolled in classes, and prior to their graduations. Under CPT, about 141,000 foreign students have received employment authorization. However, since no minimum wage or salary requirements exist under OPT programs, employers can easily exploit foreign-student graduates by paying them little or no wages as they wait for an employment-based visa such as the H-1B.

All in, when comparing 2007 to 2023, an enormous 320 percent increase occurred in the number of foreign students who obtained work authorization through some form of practical training. OPT violates federal immigration law and ending the program should not be a partisan issue. The time is long past due to weed out the most harmful of the employment visas which acreontrary to the White House’s America first agenda. A “yea” on Gosar’s bill is an excellent starting point.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org