One of the country’s student visa programs is riddled with fraud, ICE officials said Tuesday, turning it from a small educational opportunity into a massive off-the-books guest-worker program that forces Americans to compete with foreign students for jobs.
Known as Optional Practical Training, the program was intended to give foreign students who have completed their degrees a chance to remain in the U.S. two extra years while they do internships or entry-level jobs in their fields of study.
But U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it’s become a workaround to the regular immigration system, with businesses claiming to host hundreds of students — yet when authorities visit, none of them are on the job.
Sometimes the students fabricate opportunities. Other times, unscrupulous firms sponsor foreign students for supposed training and, in reality, act as labor clearinghouses, farming the students out for work at other businesses.
Agents found bogus addresses and home residences listed as hosting hundreds of foreign OPT students.
One employer in northern Texas visited by ICE agents claimed to be hosting only three OPT students, even though the agency said its own paperwork said it was hosting 500.
In New Jersey, agents visited an OPT employer listed as hosting 150 foreign workers. They found only a single student employee present, and the employer couldn’t answer questions about the others.
“We are uncovering evidence of organized fraud that spans national and international borders,” said Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director. “This fraud is not victimless. It is a blatant attack on the American people.”
He spoke in generalities, saying he couldn’t discuss ongoing investigations, but said some of the specific scams will soon be publicized.
OPT was created in the George W. Bush administration and has been questionable from the start.
Backers said it was a waste to let those who’d just graduated from U.S. colleges leave, but those favoring a stricter immigration policy questioned the need to have more foreign competition for American jobs.
Mr. Lyons said that when it was created, OPT was envisioned to cover a limited number of people.
It saw a major expansion under the Obama administration, and by 2024, there were 418,781 foreign students authorized to work under OPT.
Two-thirds of OPT students are from Asian nations, with India and China topping the list.
Businesses are exempt from paying some payroll taxes on OPT employees, so there’s a financial incentive for them to hire the foreign students over American workers.
ICE said some of the students are also paying firms to claim them as workers, giving the students a chance to maintain their status.
