Posted on 11/29/2018 4:10:47 AM PST by gattaca
A federal subsidy program that lets foreign students and their U.S. employers avoid payroll taxes robs Social Security and Medicare $2 billion a year, money American workers pay into the trust funds for the elderly, according to a new report.
The little reported on Optional Practical Training program also effectively sets aside 240,000 high-income jobs for immigrants, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, which has been detailing taxpayer-funded subsidy programs for immigrants that also benefit U.S. firms.
“Doling out the subsidies is the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program; the subsidy takes the form of exempting both the foreign worker and the employer from paying payroll tax, based on the fiction that the workers are still students. We estimated earlier this year that 240,000 aliens' jobs were subsidized by this program, and it reduced payments to the Social Security and Medicare trust funds by $2 billion a year,” wrote CIS’ David North, a former Labor Department official with expertise in immigration laws.
His report comes, he said, after the data was “pried out” the Department of Homeland Security.
He wrote about the number of schools that have students in OPT, including one — Northwestern Polytechnic University, of Fremont, Calif. — that has been accused of giving degrees away and whose students and the business that hire them are granted payroll tax breaks of $48 million.
There are two forms of OPT, according to Citizenship and Immigration Services: Pre-completion OPT (for those who have been lawfully enrolled on a full-time basis for one full academic year at a collegiate level) and post-completion OPT (for those who have completed their studies).
"If you are authorized for post-completion OPT, you may work part time (20 hours or less per week) or full time," CIS says on its website.
There are over 100 schools in the OPT program. North said the program is aimed at helping current immigrant students, but many are no longer students. North wrote, “The DHS agency in charge, the sleepy Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), describes the population as ‘Students with OPT Authorization,’ although nearly all of them are alumni, not students.”
Can’t wait til this is eliminated by EO. Thank the Lord for President Donald J Trump. Hopefully, he’ll just eliminate the program all together, saying that the US taxpayer shouldn’t have to pay for any foreigners education.
Corporate tax dogers.. That my friends is why the majority of businesses and even our government refuses to hire your sons and daughters. Taxation.
Make it hellishly expensive to hire illegals and our border problem would trickle to an occasional drizzle.
Make hiring illegals as expensive as violating HIPPA laws. That would restore our children’s rightful inheritance and even leave plenty for voluntary charity to all nations and causes.
Being exempt from SS payroll taxes makes them more attractive to employers thereby hurting American workers. It gives immigrants a competitive advantage.
These aren’t illegal aliens. They are foreign students here legally. At any one time there are 900,000 foreign students here. And according to the article they have completed their studies and are working here.
How much can a sheet of paper saying “Vote Democrat” in 27 different languages cost to print, anyway?
The last time I was at the Social Security office I saw a big screen TV on the wall with SS instructions in seven, different, languages.
I think that’s wrong too. If you can’t understand the Social Security rules, in English, you shouldn’t be eligible to draw any of it.
We’re headed down a third-world toilet.
The reason the EU can’t get organized is due to the fact of they are trying to unite many different countries, all different languages, and customs/traditions.
America worked because we (at one time) had common interest, common language, and common customs/traditions. The more “diverse” we get, the more we fall apart.
A house divided against itself, cannot stand.
Is this used as a away to get around Sec 505 of the IIRIRA?
Sec. 505. Limitation on eligibility for preferential treatment of aliens not lawfully present on basis of residence for higher education benefits.
>>America worked because we (at one time) had common interest, common language, and common customs/traditions.
The Communist Left will tell you none of that was worth keeping or celebrating including the Constitution.
JUst because the commies say it, doesn’t make it true.
I’d love to know the total expenditures on legal and non-legal non-citizens here. I’m willing to hazard a guess somewhere in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars +. The ultimate cost will be the loss of our country, and by extension the world.
Redirect those funds toward building the wall and upkeep yearly.
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