The U.S. Department of Homeland Security today announced the arrest of 15 international students as part of an investigation into fraud in optional practical training, or OPT, the work program for international graduates. Another 1,100 will lose their work authorizations.
And some college officials will likely have their certification to administer student visas on their campuses revoked as part of the investigation, which is dubbed Operation OPTical Illusion. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary of homeland security , stopped short of calling college administrators complicit, but he said they exercised a “willful ignorance or a level of negligence” that would lead to their termination as what are known as “designated school officials” in the student-visa program.
“They are not fulfilling their obligation to the U.S. government and the American people,” Cuccinelli said at a press conference in Pittsburgh, where one of the students was arrested. “We will not tolerate that under a Trump administration. So there will be consequences within some of these universities as well.”
Cuccinelli did not specify when the department would take action against college administrators. The investigation began in January, with a focus on employers suspected of engaging in OPT fraud. Government officials also focused on 3,300 OPT participants whose “situation looked suspicious,” Cuccinelli said.
Of that group, 700 will have their work permits, which allow them to stay in the United States, revoked. Another 400 were found to be out of visa status, but their OPT authorization is about to expire in the next month.
In addition to Pittsburgh, arrests were also made in Boston; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Houston; Nashville; Newark; and Washington, D.C. The students claimed they worked for companies that don’t exist.
More than 223,000 international students took part in OPT in the 2018-19 academic year, the most recent data available, according to the Institute of International Education. Under the program, graduates can remain in the United States between one to three years to gain work experience related to their field of study.
Participation in OPT has soared in recent years, in part because of changes made under the Obama administration to expand the program and in part because of the value foreign students put on gaining American work experience. In fact, one in five student-visa holders is actually on OPT.
But the Trump administration has long expressed interest in limiting OPT, arguing that permitting international students to work takes jobs from Americans. Officials invoked a similar economic justification for a recent rules change, which, if enacted, would place strict limits on the amount of time international students would be permitted to stay in the United States.
With unemployment rates high because of Covid-19 pandemic, the need is even greater today, Cuccinelli said.
Esther Brimmer, executive director of NAFSA: Association of International Educators pushed back on Cuccinelli’s comments, calling them an “unsubstantiated and reckless attack” on international-office staff members. They don’t have the responsibility or the capacity to vet OPT students’ employers, she said. “What is clear is that this administration feels justified in making international students, and now the school officials that support them scapegoats for the nation’s economic woes, at a time when it can ill-afford to do so.”
