US flags 10,000 foreign students, including Indians, for visa fraud
What's the story
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has flagged some 10,000 foreign students for allegedly misusing the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program. The list includes a number of Indian nationals. The students are said to be working with suspicious employers and some beneficiaries are even being managed from India, which is against the rules of the program.
Initiative
What is the OPT program?
The OPT program allows foreign nationals entering the US on a student visa to work in the country for 12 or 24 months. It also provides a pathway for students to transition to an H-1B visa sponsored by employers. However, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said at a press conference that this component of the student visa program has become "a magnet for fraud."
Security concerns
Beneficiaries being managed from India
Lyons stressed that the US would not tolerate security threats emanating from the foreign student program. He noted that federal investigators had found cases where OPT beneficiaries were being "managed" by employees based in India, violating a provision of the program requiring US training and direction. This is just one of many issues raised by ICE in its ongoing investigations into this matter.
Program evolution
Uncontrolled guest worker pipeline
Lyons said the OPT program was introduced during George W Bush's presidency with the expectation that only a few thousand beneficiaries would receive training and return home. However, he noted that instead of this vision, the program has turned into an uncontrolled guest worker pipeline with hundreds of thousands of foreign students working in the US. As its size has grown, so has the fraud associated with it.