🚨 HOLY SMOKES. ICE has just announced a jaw-dropping fraud bust, saying 10,000 FOREIGN students are involved in the federal government's Optional Practical Training

There are EMPTY BUILDINGS where HUNDREDS of students should be "working" as part of their ability to be in America — run by foreign-linked groups that send money out of the country!

Locked doors, hundreds of students sharing the SAME ADDRESS, and "employers" sharing the same unleased addresses

Many of the so-called "employers" have major red flags, such as facing lawsuits, no employment records, offshore payroll claims, and suspicious INTERNATIONAL MONEY flows

"HSI agents have visited problematic OPT employer work sites in Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Florida."

"Foreign students themselves are entering false addresses and employer names into the student and exchange visitor information system."

"But we are uncovering evidence of organized fraud that spans national and international borders. This is not accidental. It is deliberate, coordinated, and criminal."

"To give you an example, one employer we visited claimed to employ only three foreign students through OPT, while our records show over 500 foreign students claiming to work there."

"The company's representatives were unable to answer basic questions about the business and deferred HR managers in India."

"OPT employers are required to directly train foreign students, but we've seen multiple examples of alleged employers claiming that all management is overseas in India."

"We've also discovered multiple state networks which are large networks of alleged employers claiming to train thousands of foreign students in OPT, then farming them out to unreported third party employers, making oversight nearly impossible and raising serious national security issues."

"OPT"??? WTH is that?? Here's a much more clear backgrounder from Claude. This will make everybody's blood boil! Just shut the damn thing down TOMORROW!! American students cost more in taxes so employers have incentives to hire these invaders. Bush & Obama at the root. This is classical FedGov run amok with programs forever expanding without any restraint. God, I am SO pissed off at this!

Optional Practical Training is a temporary employment authorization program that allows F-1 student visa holders to work in a job directly related to their major field of study. While the program was originally created to allow for limited "practical training" in the United States, it has evolved into one of the country's largest guestworker programs. F-1 visa holders in non-STEM fields typically get work authorization for 12 months, while those in STEM fields may apply for a 24-month extension — allowing them to work in the U.S. up to 36 months after graduation.

OPT has never been authorized by any statute. It was created by the legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service and later continued and expanded by DHS through regulation under the agencies' general authority to regulate the F-1 visa program.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said the program has become a workaround to the regular immigration system, with businesses claiming to host hundreds of students — yet when authorities visit, none of them are actually on the job. Agents found bogus addresses and home residences listed as hosting hundreds of foreign OPT students. One employer in northern Texas claimed to be hosting only three OPT students, even though ICE's own paperwork said it was hosting 500.

ICE has identified over 10,000 foreign students claiming to work for "highly suspect employers" — and that's just among the top 25 OPT employers. ICE says this is "only the tip of the iceberg." Investigators also found large networks of alleged employers claiming to train thousands of foreign students, then farming them out to unreported third-party employers, making oversight nearly impossible and raising national security concerns.

Because F-1 visa holders on OPT are classified by the IRS as "students" even after graduation, their employers are exempt from paying federal payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare — saving roughly 7.65 percent in labor costs per worker — while American graduates generate these costs for employers.

The program was created in the George W. Bush administration and has been controversial from the start. It saw a major expansion under the Obama administration, and by 2024 there were 418,781 foreign students authorized to work under OPT.

In short: OPT is a post-graduation work program for foreign students that was created by executive regulation (not Congress), grew far beyond its original scope, and is now drawing intense scrutiny for widespread fraud involving shell companies, ghost employers, and students who exist only on paper.

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