OPINION:
On July 17, the Department of Homeland Security disclosed a fact that Congress should find difficult to ignore: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had identified more than 10,000 potential fraud cases involving Optional Practical Training. This is the program that lets foreign students work in the U.S. during or after their studies.
A visa category intended for students has become one of America’s largest uncapped guest-worker programs, though Congress never expressly created it.
The department describes shell employers, fabricated records, offshore management and pay-to-stay arrangements in which graduates allegedly paid companies to report nonexistent jobs. At 18 Texas worksites, investigators found participants managed remotely from India.
One company had roughly 500 OPT workers in federal records — and three actual employees.
ICE acting Director Todd Lyons called OPT a magnet for fraud and said investigations had encountered espionage, intellectual property theft and biological threats. However, 10,000 potential cases hardly suggest a program under control.
OPT placed 294,253 foreign graduates in the U.S. labor market during the 2024-2025 academic year, up 21.2% from the previous year. Of these, 187,749 used standard post-completion OPT and 106,504 used the STEM extension.
Unlike the H-1B visa, OPT has no annual ceiling.
The program included 61,981 Chinese nationals, 1,763 Iranians and 891 Russians. Together, these 64,635 workers represented about 22% of OPT and came from three countries designated under federal research-security policy as foreign countries of concern.
The National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned in August 2025 that hostile governments recruit students and recent graduates and sometimes place intelligence officers in American universities under student cover. It described China as America’s broadest and most persistent espionage threat, particularly in the fields of artificial intelligence, quantum technology and semiconductors.
That makes reliable employment records essential. Yet the Government Accountability Office found that OPT records often lacked employer information, thereby impairing the government’s ability to determine where participants worked and assess technology-transfer risks.
The economic distortion is easier to measure. Unemployment among recent American college graduates was about 5.7% in the first quarter of 2026, while 41.5% were underemployed in jobs not requiring their degrees.
Adding nearly 300,000 temporary foreign workers to the entry-level professional market affects bargaining power. OPT participants must maintain qualifying employment to preserve their immigration status, giving employers leverage over American workers that they do not have.
The tax code increases that advantage. F-1 workers who remain nonresident aliens are generally exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes on wages earned during authorized practical training. Employers avoid the corresponding 7.65% FICA contribution.
Before salaries are compared, an OPT worker can therefore cost less than an American graduate.
The larger issue is one of authority. The Immigration and Nationality Act defines an F-1 student as someone seeking temporary entry solely to pursue a course of study. The regulation turned that educational status into a multiyear employment authorization serving hundreds of thousands annually.
Standard OPT permits 12 months of work; qualifying STEM graduates receive another 24 months. The resulting three-year term mirrors an initial H-1B visa.
In 2022, a divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld OPT under general immigration authority. Judge Karen Henderson dissented, arguing that the F-1 provision “plainly does not delegate” power to let graduates remain for post-completion employment.
The program may be lawful under current precedent, but judicial approval is not the same as democratic authorization. Congress capped H-1B visas at 65,000 annually, plus 20,000 for holders of advanced U.S. degrees. OPT has no comparable limit and allows STEM graduates to work for three years while employers pursue H-1B status.
The Homeland Security Department should pause new post-completion OPT approvals while Congress reviews the program. Any replacement should require employer petitions, a statutory cap, prevailing-wage rules, payroll verification, random inspections and heightened screening for sensitive industries.
America benefits from attracting talented foreign students. However, if Congress wants a guest-worker program for foreign graduates, it should create one openly, set limits and accept responsibility for the result.
Until then, OPT remains what Congress never expressly authorized but Washington quietly built: America’s shadow guest-worker program.
• Kevin Cohen is the CEO of RealEye, the head of cyberintelligence at Trident Group America and a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and The Spectator.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.