back to article Supreme Court doesn't want to hear union's beef about STEM grad work visas

The US Supreme Court has handed foreign students, the tech industry, and academic institutions a final victory by declining to hear a union's appeal against the duration of a STEM work visa. The program at issue is known as Optional Practical Training, or OPT, and allows international students in America studying on a student …

  1. jake_leone

    OPT is a 15% discount to commit discrimination

    The discrimination aspect of OPT needs be eliminated. The OPT tax break should be applied to all students, and the unemployed. Right now, we give companies a 15% tax break to hire a foreign STEM student (for 3 years). We then give the company an indentured worker, that can't leave the job, while waiting for an H-1b visa and then a Green Card. Local STEM workers have full 13th amendment rights, but a foreign STEM worker risks losing their place in the H-1b and Green Card cue if they leave the job, or worse returning to abject poverty. There is nothing funny about this kind of discrimination, it affects foreign workers badly (in different ways), and it is creating a condition where companies are preferring (in violation of our laws against such discrimination) foreign workers because of their discount and trapped visa status.

    1. LybsterRoy Silver badge

      Re: OPT is a 15% discount to commit discrimination

      -- the H-1b and Green Card cue --

      Is that anything like a snooker cue?

      1. jake_leone

        Re: OPT is a 15% discount to commit discrimination

        No I meant queue not cue. The phonetic similarity causes improper linkage apparently, when writing quickly. Thanks for the cue on that one.

  2. jake_leone

    We instead need a national apprenticeship, open to all, not just foreign students

    This year our local STEM students are having great difficulty finding STEM jobs (just go to YouTube and see the testimonials on this). This year, companies applied for 400,000 H-1b visas, while at the same time laying off 250,000 similarly skilled local workers. To me that wreaks of massive discrimination by our local Tech companies. Part of this (not all) is because foreign workers become de-facto indentured during the process, that starts with a 15% tax discount from the Federal Government to favor foreign student workers over equally qualified locals. Instead we should extend the OPT tax break to all students, and the unemployed, because all tech jobs require some training. This apprenticeship could last for 3 years. If the worker leaves the job early (without cause), they pay the 15% tax break back to the Federal Government. This year we had 400,000 H-1b job offers extended to mostly foreign freshers right out of college. We need to end the cycle that is leading to massive discrimination in the United States (2600+ cases at Facebook see DOJ vs Facebook 2020, at the USDOJ). And is depleting our local STEM worker supply, because as locals are unable to break into STEM, they eventually find jobs in other industries, which might or might-not utilize their STEM skills, but are not engaged is massive discrimination against in the hiring process.

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: We instead need a national apprenticeship, open to all, not just foreign students

      Be interested in knowing how many OPT employees/apprentices are retained, or whether they are also treated less favourably and tend to be replaced with a new crop of OPT apprentices.

      Interestingly, long-term it would tend to bias the pool of STEM workers towards foreign workers.

      Perhaps what Washtech needs are some Russian or Chinese OPT participants working for the DoD or other such establishments and hence the “spying” boogeyman can be invoked, and if they return to their home country, well it’s hardly surprising if they use their skills and knowledge gained in the US against the US…

      1. jake_leone

        Re: We instead need a national apprenticeship, open to all, not just foreign students

        I have seen several people get stuck on the OPT extension, never receiving an H-1b. That's sad. The way around that is to stop giving any H-1b visas to Offshore Outsourcing companies. Which we still do, typically around half the H-1b visas are used by Offshore Outsourcing to remove jobs from the United States.

        The reason why this occurred is because in the U.S. politicians vote by campaign contribution. It takes someone who is immune from those same contributions to actually start speaking the truth about the H-1b visa, and how it damages U.S. economic progress more than it helps Big Tech.

        If instead, we raised the salary requirements (they are stuck at 60k yr, and that is practically minimum wage now). And if we allocated H-1b visas based upon salary rather than a random chance raffle. This would cut down Offshore Outsourcing in the United States, and unemployment would be at 1%.

        But the paid off class of politicians in the U.S. throw some jobs under the bus, for the sake of corporate contributions.

        My feeling is limit Green Card retries to 2x, make the process open (require advertising on all free internet sites for example). If after the 2nd try, the Green Card is not certified, the local gets the job, the Green Card applicant leaves the job.

        Allocate H-1b visas based upon salary.

        And make the OPT Tax break available to all students and the unemployed, as part of an apprenticeship.

        This would end our dependence on foreign worker, and clear up the Green Card cue, and make it possible for more OPT students to land an H-1b visa (since employers pay way more than Offshore Outsourcing companies).

  3. DrGeneNelson

    The OPT Visa Converts Unlimited F-1 Visas into Unlimited Work Visas

    While the H-1B work visa program has a modest limit, the unlimited OPT work visa absolutely circumvents the meager U.S. technical worker protections. As you will learn in the 2015 book that Attorney John M. Miano co-wrote with Michelle Malkin - Sold Out: How High-Tech Billionaires & Bipartisan Beltway Crapweasels Are Screwing America's Best & Brightest Workers - the OPT extension for STEM was created by a Microsoft lobbyist with the express purpose of circumventing the H-1B Visa limit through executive branch action. This set of programs are nothing more than a government - sanctioned system to harm the career prospects of American citizen technical professionals, even naturalized citizens.

    Low-ranked U.S. colleges and universities are abusing these programs by selling a F-1 Visa as a work visa later converted to an OPT work visa to impoverished people around the world. However, the abuse extends even to U.S. ivy league schools. See the October 5, 2023 Wall Street Journal article, "After Shunning Scientist, University of Pennsylvania Celebrates Her Nobel Prize" I posted a comment on October 6, 2023 sharply critical of employer abuse of the H-1, H-1B and OPT work visa programs.

    Greedy employers covet the indentured nature of these work visa programs for technology workers. I was one of the original WashTech plaintiffs in 2007. I withdrew from the case when I had the good fortune to obtain IT work which lasted until early 2009. I've twice testified regarding the harms of the controversial H-1B Visa in the U.S. House of Representatives and twice to the National Academy of Sciences. To learn more about my advocacy for experienced American citizen technical professionals, please use both phrases "Gene Nelson" and "H-1B" Given that excellence in STEM fields is what transformed the U.S. into a superpower from December 7, 1941 (Pearl Harbor Day) onward, the military and commercial opponents of the U.S. are doubtless enthused by this flawed Supreme Court decision.

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