US Senator calls for end of OPT
“In addition to harming American job seekers, foreign student work authorisations also put our nation at risk of technological and corporate espionage,” said Iowa senator and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley.
In a September 23 letter to secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Grassley claimed: “Competition from foreign graduates is contributing to rising unemployment rates among college-educated Americans. This should not be the case.”
Though Grassley did not mention Optional Practical Training (OPT) by name, he called on the department to stop issuing work authorisations to international students, which he said was “in direct violation of the law”, arguing that student visas were “solely” for the purpose of education.
Grassley drew on Federal Reserve data that found the unemployment rate of 22-27-year-old males to be roughly the same whether or not they held a degree, and that US STEM graduates have a higher unemployment rate than the general population.
He produced no evidence to support the argument that international competition was driving domestic unemployment, which runs contrary to NAFSA research showing that, for every three international students, one US job was created in 2023/24.
As such, international students supported 378,175 jobs that academic year and contributed $43.8 billion to the US economy, the data revealed.
Grassley’s letter comes as a recent Georgetown University study has revealed worsening labour gaps in the US economy, which will need an additional 5.25m workers with postsecondary education by 2032 to address growing skills shortages in critical fields.
“Without massive and immediate increases in educational attainment, 171 occupations of the 561 we analysed will face skills shortages through at least 2032,” said Nicole Smith, chief economist at Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW).
Smith highlighted that managerial and professional occupations, particularly management positions, were set to see the largest gaps, followed by teaching, nursing and engineering – fields with “far-reaching implications for the nation’s education and healthcare systems”.
“If the skills shortage continues, it could hobble the American economy for years to come,” the report warned.
Alongside increasing workforce participation, investing in reskilling workers and using technology to increase productivity, the report advised the government to “expand visa programs to prioritise immigrants with in-demand skills in jobs with more pronounced shortages”.
If the skills shortage continues, it could hobble the American economy for years to come
Nicole Smith, CEW
Participation in OPT hit an all-time high of nearly 250,000 in 2023/24, accounting for roughly 22% of the overall student population, according to the latest Open Doors data.
Unlike its counterparts across the ‘big four’, the US includes individuals taking part in post-study work opportunities via OPT in official student counts, even though they are not enrolled in a college and do not pay tuition fees.
The workstream is commonly cited as one of the primary reasons for students choosing to study in the US, with over half of current postgraduate students indicating they wouldn’t have enrolled at an American university had OPT been rescinded, a recent NAFSA study found.
Alongside his case for rising domestic unemployment, Grassley argued the granting of work authorisation to student visa holders was putting America at risk of “technological and corporate espionage”.
He highlighted the more than 33,000 Chinese student visa holders with STEM work authorisations, citing a 2020 DHS report by the USCIS ombudsman under the first Trump administration warning of OPT being used for “espionage and technology transfer”.
The promise of career opportunities in the US has become increasingly fragile in recent months, with Trump’s newly appointed USCIS director Joseph Edlow vowing to end post-graduation OPT before he officially took on the role.
What’s more, the Trump administration shocked US businesses and prospective employees last month when it hiked the H-1B skilled worker visa fee to $100,000 – more than 20 times what employers were previously paying.
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