World
ICE Flags 10,000 Foreign Students, Including Indians, in US 'Visa Fraud' Crackdown
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities said on Tuesday that they have identified 10,000 foreign students, including several from India, who are alleged to have used the Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme to work for what officials described as “highly suspicious employers”. According to news agency PTI, the claims were made by acting ICE director Todd Lyons.
The OPT programme allows international students on F-1 visas to work in the United States for up to 12 months after graduation. Students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields may apply for an extension of up to 24 months.
The programme is also commonly used as a pathway to employer-sponsored H-1B work visas. Lyons said the OPT system had “become a magnet for fraud” and had been the subject of multiple investigations by the Department of Homeland Security.
“We’ve encountered cases involving espionage, biological threats, intellectual property theft, visa and employment fraud, and even scams targeting elderly Americans, all perpetrated by individuals abusing their status as students,” he said.
“Our nation will not tolerate security threats originating from the foreign student programme,” he added.
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Lyons and other officials said investigators conducted site visits and uncovered a number of alleged irregularities.
Among them were cases in which OPT participants were reportedly being supervised by employees based in India, despite programme rules requiring training and oversight to take place within the United States.
According to Lyons, the programme was introduced during the administration of former President George W. Bush and was originally intended to support a relatively small number of international students before they returned to their home countries.
“Instead, OPT ballooned into an uncontrolled guest worker pipeline with hundreds of thousands of foreign students working in the United States,” he said. “As the programme’s size has exploded, so has the fraud.”
Lyons described the alleged misuse of the programme as “a blatant attack on the goodwill of the American people”, saying Americans had “generously” allowed foreign students access to the US education system.
