In a letter to DHS, Sen. Eric Schmitt calls OPT a “cheap-labor pipeline” that disadvantages American workers and urges the administration to overhaul or terminate the program.
By AB Wire
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, has called for a comprehensive review of the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program — which allows international students graduating from U.S. universities to work in the country — as a first step toward reforming or potentially ending it.
In a letter sent Friday to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, he expressed strong support for the agency’s reported plans to overhaul the program.
The OPT program allows international graduates to work in the United States for up to twelve months after completing their degree, with STEM graduates eligible for an additional twenty-four-month extension.
In the wake of the Trump administration’s renewed crackdown on illegal immigration and its increasingly aggressive posture toward employment-based visas like the H-1B, the spotlight has now turned to OPT as well. Once considered a relatively uncontroversial training benefit for international students, the program is facing intensified scrutiny from policymakers who argue that any pathway enabling foreign graduates to work in the United States should be reevaluated under the administration’s “America First” framework.
READ: What is Optional Practical Training, or OPT?
Schmitt, who was elected to the Senate in November 2022, pointed out that the program, which provides a work benefit attached to the standard student visa, was created administratively without explicit congressional authorization.
The senator argued that the program “effectively acts as a pipeline for cheap labor,” claiming it primarily serves the financial interests of large corporations and academic institutions while disadvantaging American workers in favor of foreign labor.
“In light of your administration’s continued commitment to America First immigration policy, I write to you in strong support of ongoing discussions surrounding reforms to the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program,” Schmitt wrote. “Recent reports have outlined your department’s plans to overhaul or end OPT. This would represent a long-overdue correction to one of the most abused programs in the entire U.S. immigration system, which is also one of the few immigration programs created entirely by the executive branch, lacking congressional authorization.”
Schmitt, who previously served as the Missouri attorney general, argued that the OPT program has strayed far from its original intent, sharply criticizing its impact on the U.S. job market and higher education system. He said:
“Today, however, the program functions as a cheap-labor pipeline for big business—and a backdoor into the U.S. job market for foreign workers. OPT serves the financial interests of large corporations and academic institutions at the direct expense of young American workers and students. This system boxes young Americans out of the workforce, discriminates against American workers in favor of foreign labor, and suppresses wages and job opportunities for U.S. graduates. At the same time, it distorts our higher education system, incentivizes colleges to become ‘visa mills’ and poses a serious threat to our national security and prosperity.”
The senator wrote that “Americans never asked for, or even authorized” the OPT program, which, he said, “was created (and then expanded) by unelected bureaucrats in the executive branch, without the input or approval of Congress, circumventing the caps and limits that govern employment-based visas.”
READ: USCIS cracks down on fake payrolls; OPT students to lose visa (August 11, 2025)
“This unfortunate exercise of executive action,” he said, “means OPT can likely be overhauled or ended by executive action.”
Schmitt said that universities “have a major financial incentive” to encourage work permits for foreign students as they “tend to pay far higher tuition fees than their native-born counterparts.”
He continued, “As a result, many would argue that young Americans are being boxed out of both the workforce and the university system in their own country.”
Foreign students now constitute 20–30 percent of total enrollment at many elite and public universities — and the share is often far higher in graduate programs, the senator noted. Last year, for instance, 39 percent of Columbia University’s student body was international. At New York University, that figure was nearly 44 percent, representing a 244 percent increase since 2013, he wrote.
In recent months, Schmitt has spoken out against H-1B visas as well, alleging that some U.S. companies are “using H-1B visas to staff their DEI offices.”
“The H-1B visa was sold as a way to keep America ‘competitive,’ he posted on X in September.
“Instead, it imported millions of foreign nationals to replace American workers—and transferred entire industries into the hands of foreign lobbies. “Legal” immigration can harm Americans too. I’ve reviewed numerous examples of hospitals, universities and other employers hiring foreign H-1B workers as DEI bureaucrats. I’m urging USCIS to work with us to fix this.”