Washington, D.C. (June 18, 2019) - The
Center for Immigration Studies finds that
two big newspapers, the New York
Times and the San Jose Mercury, recently
published articles on the controversial
Optional Practical Training (OPT) program
for foreign grads of U.S. universities
without mentioning the truth about the
program — America's elderly and sick in
effect pay $2 billion a year to employers
who hire alien grads through OPT rather
than American ones.
View the full post: https://cis.org/North/New-York-Times-San-Jose-MercuryNews-Hide-Subsidies-Alien-Grads-OPT-Articles
David North, fellow at the Center and the author of the piece, said, "Neither article mentioned the approximately 8 percent tax break that employers of foreign grads, but not of American grads, get under OPT. The program's dirty little secret is that it is subsidizing employers who choose to hire alien grads rather than American ones."
The New York Times article on Monday dealt with a slowdown within the Department of Homeland Security in the issuance of work permits for the foreign alumni bore this awkward headline: "Visa Delays at Backlogged Immigration Service Strand International Students".
The Times article focused on the new delays in the issuance of work permits for these jobs, which, indirectly, caused the loss of some of those jobs, and on an interesting set of "victims", all of whom are former or current students at Ivy League universities. This gives a lopsided view of the program that routinely provides subsidized jobs to more than 200,000 alumni of less highly regarded institutions.
For instance, one would not know from reading any of the rare media coverage of this program that OPT alumni have been hired, in subsidized jobs, as construction laborers.
Meanwhile, The San Jose Mercury News reported on an important event in the migration business - Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) will soon be introducing a bill terminating the OPT program; he has also written to the president urging him to end the program (which has no legislative basis) by issuing an executive order.
Gosar is aware of the subsidies in the program, and is opposed to them. The first report on his legislative proposal came from Bloomberg News, which also noted the subsidy element in OPT, but the Mercury-News account failed to mention the tax break.
That these trust funds are, in effect, sending money to employers who would rather hire alien graduates than American ones, remains, for all practical purposes, a dirty little secret.
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