Dear {name},

This week I want to spotlight just one event: the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for USCIS Director nominee Joseph Edlow held on May 21, 2025.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) posed an excellent question regarding the Optional Practical Training work authorization program, asking: "The Biden administration turned a lot of things on their head. One of the many things they turned on their heads involves the Optional Practical Training program, turning it into the single largest [skilled] guest worker program, bypassing the traditional limitations, the traditional rules... of other visas such as H-1B. What changes would you make if confirmed to fix that issue?"

Edlow responded, "I think the way in which OPT has been handled over the past four years with the help of certain decisions coming out of the DC Circuit Court has been a real problem in terms of misapplication of the law. What I want to see is a regulatory or sub-regulatory program to remove the ability for employment authorizations for F-1 students beyond the time that they're in school."

In other words, Edlow is intent on ending OPT. Almost immediately, neoliberal talking heads such as Stuart Anderson began venting their umbrage over the prospect of losing a roughly 122,000-per-year source of cheap labor that has been successfully used for decades to sideline American college graduates. Anderson falsely stated that "to curtail or end OPT and STEM OPT, the Trump administration would need to publish a new regulation, a process that can take several months or more than a year." WRONG!

OPT was never passed by Congress, and it is accurate to say it was created illegally through a regulation in a classic case of deference that resulted from a back-office deal between Microsoft founder Bill Gates and then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff during the George W. Bush administration. It allows employers to skip their portion of FICA taxes and pay these foreign graduates whatever they want as "interns." Moreover, most of these foreign graduates come from unranked diploma mills. The program can and should be ended overnight. Roughly 24% of STEM OPT work authorizations go to Chinese nationals, and ending the program would lessen exposure to intellectual property theft from our firms and universities.

Here are some important points to keep in mind when discussing STEM OPT with others:

• There is no numerical limit for OPT and STEM OPT.
• There is no requirement to find an American worker first.
• OPT recipients take entry-level STEM job positions away from American college graduates. OPT has no wage or job protections, meaning employers can pay whatever they want.
• OPT workers are exempt from paying Medicare and Social Security taxes—a 15.3% discount for workers.
• It benefits universities and major American corporations, effectively handing them a cheap labor subsidy.
• The program allows employers to exploit foreign graduates.
• It incentivizes more international students to come to the U.S., not for education but for work.
• Congress did not pass the STEM OPT program; the Bush administration created the STEM OPT extension through executive fiat.
• It allows foreign nationals to train in national security fields such as Nuclear and Combat Systems Engineering, Cyber Warfare, etc.
• The program does not consider the educational needs of foreign students or the current needs of the labor market.

The best way to stay up to date on the STEM OPT program is to follow us @ustechworkers and @PFIRorg on X.

Onward,

Kevin Lynn

Executive Director, Institute for Sound Public Policy

Founder, U.S. Tech Workers