A Republican Congressman, Paul Gosar (R-Ariz), is introducing legislation that could end the 20 year old OPT program, which allows foreign graduates to work in STEM fields while still on their F-1 student visas for as long as 36 months, allowing all other foreign graduates to work in their field of choice while still on their F-1 student visa for 12 months.
The number of foreign students and graduates participating in the Optional Training Program (OPT) hit an all-time high during the 2017-18 school year with more than 200,000 foreign students and graduates working in the U.S. OPT allows foreign students and graduates to work in the United States for 12 months (up to 36 months for students in STEM fields) to gain on-the-job experience.
The D.C. Circuit reversed the dismissal of a case challenging whether or not the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was authorized to create the Optional Practical Training program (OPT) and remanded the case back to the D.C. District Court last Friday. The court ruled against the agency's argument that the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), suing on behalf of American workers harmed by OPT, did not have standing to bring the suit. The court ruled that American workers do not have to prove they were rejected, after applying for a specific job that was later filled bya foreign national with OPT status.
Nearly 1.5 million foreign graduates of U.S. universities received work permits through the Optional Training Program (OPT) between 2004 and 2016, according to Pew Research. OPT allows foreign students who graduate, particularly those with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics, to stay and work in the United States for up to 36 months after graduation and compete with American workers.
Breitbart’s Neil Munro reports that 329,158 foreign students or graduates of American universities received work permits under the Department of Homeland Security’s Optional Practical Training (OPT) program in FY 2016. This represents an almost a four-fold increase over the 91,140 work permits handed out in FY 2009, according to DHS data Munro obtained. “The government is enticing employers to hire foreigners instead of Americans … it is ridiculous,” the Center for Immigration Studies’ Mark Krikorian said.
A recent report by the Pew Research Center shows that more foreign students are using the Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa program to gain employment and stay in the U.S. until they can receive an H-1B visa. This prevents many American graduates, who attended the same colleges and universities, from being hired in those fields.
Prof. Norm Matloff "says no" to claims more foreign students returning to their home countries means the tech industry is suffering a lack of qualified job candidates.
Find Law -- Christopher Coble, Esq.
But those are plans from Congress -- could the president act alone on the H1-B program? Eric Ruark, director of research at limited immigration advocate NumbersUSA, told the Wall Street Journal that Trump could attack the program in three ways:
Use an executive directive to tighten the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which gives foreign graduates in science, technology, engineering, or math-related fields the right to find permanent U.S. jobs for up to 36 months;
Professors from Rutgers and Howard Universities denied claims by the high-tech industry that more guest workers are needed due to a shortage of Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) workers and said the industry’s desire for cheap foreign guest workers is cutting off the “upward mobility to the middle class for so many of the working class kids."
