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Dear {name}:
When I speak on Tuesday, August 11th before the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley on the detrimental effect the Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) Optional Practical Training (OPT) program is having on our recent STEM graduates, particularly in the Bay Area, I will be carrying on the work of Professor Norm Matloff, who passed away in June. Professor Matloff was one of the earliest and quite possibly the most effective critics of the H-1B visa program, and, as well, of the ever-growing presence of foreign students in our universities.
In a 2025 article titled "H-1B Visas Are Transforming America," Professor Matloff stated: "It should be noted that the impact of the international students on US citizens and permanent residents is not limited to employment. Many universities share tuition revenue with individual departments, and since it is common for schools to charge higher tuition to foreign students, there is an incentive for the departments to accept more foreign students, at least at the graduate degree level, where individual departments handle admissions. Given the abysmal tech job market, any department seeking to exploit the foreign-domestic tuition differential is betraying domestic students."
Fast forward to this week. Wall Street Journal reporter Michelle Hackman set off a flurry of debate Thursday when she posted on X that the administration was deliberating whether to apply a $100,000 fee to each STEM OPT work authorization. Although little indicates this is anything more than an internal discussion, the debate it inspires shows Americans are waking up to how STEM OPT and other work-authorization programs are used to undermine them. In much the same way the H-1B visa program was designed to rip out the middle rungs of the career ladder for our white-collar professionals, STEM OPT is destroying opportunities for that first job after graduating college.
I'm sure Norm could not have imagined that the fight to reform employment visa programs to prevent them from harming American workers would become a generational one. But it has, and here we are!
Onward,
Kevin Lynn
Executive Director, Institute for Sound Public Policy
Founder, U.S. Tech Workers |
