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.