Swansenreport

ICE: Foreign Student Work Program Has Become a ‘Magnet for Fraud’ — 10,000 Cases Flagged

Federal immigration authorities announced Tuesday they have identified more than 10,000 cases of potential fraud tied to a little-known program that allows foreign students to remain and work in the United States after graduation — with investigators finding empty buildings, locked doors, and phantom employers on a scale Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said may be “only the tip of the iceberg.”
The fraud involves the Optional Practical Training program, known as OPT, which allows foreign nationals studying in the U.S. on F-1 student visas to work in their field of study for 12 months after graduation, with a 24-month extension available for STEM graduates. The program is supposed to bridge foreign students into legitimate employment — but Lyons said it has instead become a vehicle for large-scale abuse. “Our nation will not tolerate security threats originating from the foreign student program,” he said at an afternoon press conference alongside Homeland Security Investigations officials. Breitbart
What investigators found at the alleged worksites was striking. Empty buildings with locked doors were listed as employing hundreds of foreign students. Multiple employers claimed the same address, but none actually leased the space. Small homes were listed as business headquarters. In some cases, foreign students obtained work permits through OPT and never showed up to any job. “We are uncovering evidence of organized fraud that spans national and international borders,” Lyons said. Twitchy
Lyons noted that many of the suspect employers are NGOs engaged in “suspicious activity” — a detail that has drawn particular attention from Republican members of Congress. The investigation has uncovered cases involving alleged visa fraud, employment fraud, intellectual property theft, and financial scams, in addition to the basic work authorization abuse. NOTUS
The OPT program has grown substantially in recent years. Lyons said it has “ballooned into an uncontrolled guest worker pipeline with hundreds of thousands of foreign students working in the United States.” The program also carries a tax advantage that American workers don’t get — OPT participants are exempt from certain payroll taxes, giving employers a financial incentive to hire them over U.S. citizens. Fox News
One important caveat worth noting for readers: at this stage the 10,000 students are flagged and under investigation — not all have been proven to have committed fraud themselves. Some may be victims of fraudulent employers rather than active participants in the scheme. Investigations are ongoing. Bloomberg Law
ICE has not announced a specific timeline for enforcement actions but said the agency will “relentlessly investigate, disrupt, and refer for prosecution” anyone found to have exploited the program.
Sources: Bloomberg Law | The Post Millennial | Daily Wire | ICE Official Twitter