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The Trump administration says it has uncovered a major fraud scheme involving foreign students and the federal visa system, raising fresh concerns about immigration oversight and abuse of programs originally intended for temporary educational training. According to ICE officials, thousands of foreign nationals may have used the STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT) program to obtain work authorization through fake or suspicious employers.
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From Fox News:
Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons announced that federal investigators have uncovered more than 10,000 foreign students connected to “suspect employers” as part of another potentially massive fraud scheme, this time involving the federal STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT) extension program.
At a news conference Tuesday, Lyons said the cases uncovered thus far are “just the tip of the iceberg.”
OPT is a U.S. immigration program that lets international students on F-1 visas work temporarily in the country in jobs related to their field of study. Lyons said that when the program was first created under the Bush administration and expanded under the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security expected “only a few thousand foreign students would receive training approval before returning home.”
According to Lyons, Homeland Security Investigations officers later uncovered troubling evidence tied to the program, including empty office buildings, residential addresses listed as business locations, and multiple companies allegedly operating out of the same nonexistent facilities. Investigators also identified what Lyons described as “phantom employees” — foreign students who reportedly obtained work authorization through OPT but never appeared at the worksites connected to their applications.
The findings are likely to fuel growing concerns over visa oversight and the integrity of America’s immigration system. Critics of the OPT program have warned for years that weak enforcement and limited accountability leave the system vulnerable to abuse, while supporters argue the program helps attract skilled international talent to the United States. ICE officials now say the scale of the fraud appears far larger than originally anticipated.
Vice President JD Vance praised the investigation as “another great win” for the administration’s fraud task force. The Trump administration says it will continue expanding enforcement efforts to identify fraudulent activity and protect American workers from abuse of federal visa programs.
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(Excerpt from Fox News. Photo Credit: Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Flickr)
