Young American college graduates are getting a raw deal.
The unemployment rate for recent college graduates, aged 20 to 24 years, reached 9.3% in August 2025, according to Forbes. For comparison, older college graduates, aged 25 to 34, had an unemployment rate of 3.6%, and high school graduates had a rate of 4.3%.
Why? Business analysts point to “structural issues” in the economy or to artificial intelligence (AI) taking over jobs. But they don’t mention the competition American college students and recent graduates face from foreign students and graduates in America.
This foreign competition is enabled by a creation of the administrative state known as Optional Practical Training (OPT). It is past time for Congress to end this program.
OPT was created in 1992 by an administrative rule. It originally allowed a foreign student to work for one year after graduation from a U.S. college in the student’s major area of study.
But like all immigration benefits, OPT was eventually expanded and extended to nearly four years, moves again made by the administrative state.
Foreign students with an “F” visa can receive up to 12 months of OPT employment authorization before or after completing their academic studies. If a foreign student earns a degree in over 220 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields of study, he can also apply for a 24-month extension of his OPT employment authorization, for a total of three years.
This long list of degrees includes questionable “STEM” entries, however. Examples include archaeology; quality control technology/technician; welding engineering technology/technician; automotive engineering technology/technician; engineering-related fields/other; management science; and business statistics.
Many of these fields of study are vague, broad, and include business, liberal arts, and trade studies rather than STEM.
Our universities produce plenty of American graduates in business and liberal arts, so why are foreign students in so many categories of studies allowed to work in the U.S. following graduation?
Two reasons: employers get a tax break for foreign OPT grads, and OPT acts as an immigration bridge that allows aliens to stay in the U.S. between college and obtaining employment-based visas. In other words, OPT benefits employers and aliens, not American college students, graduates, or employees.
“F” student visa holders, including OPT graduates, are considered nonresident aliens for their first five calendar years in the U.S. During this period, their wages are exempt from Social Security and Medicare (FICA) taxes for both the employee (7.65%) and the employer (7.65%), for a combined savings of 15.3% for the foreign student/employee and the employer.
This is a clear financial incentive for employers to hire foreign graduates over American graduates. The solution to this disadvantage for American students and graduates is not to end the tax exemption. Rather, the solution is for Congress to end the administrative immigration benefit of OPT and all its variants.
The OPT programs have become just another vehicle for more permanent immigration to the U.S. under the guise of being “temporary.” OPT is the piece in the pipeline that gets an alien from temporary student status to an H-1B or other “temporary” visa category, followed by a permanent visa, also known as a green card.
To obtain a temporary “F” student visa, however, the visa applicant swears to the U.S. government that the alien is returning home after completion of studies.
Over the past several decades, however, foreign student applicants have developed an unfounded expectation to remain in the U.S. after graduation, and “F” visa holders are typically the highest visa overstay violators among temporary visa categories, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Other benefits given to foreign students that facilitate their extended or permanent stay in the U.S. include a 60-day grace period to prepare their departure from the U.S.
Really, this buys an alien more time in the U.S. to pursue a change of status to another visa category. Furthermore, OPT aliens are allowed to be unemployed for up to 90 days during their initial OPT period and an additional 60 days during their 24-month OPT extension.
These numerous administrative creations and add-ons all benefit the alien, not U.S. students, graduates, employees, or the American taxpayer. It is past time for Congress to terminate this runaway immigration path and to re-exert its constitutional authority over immigration benefits, including work authorization.
Temporary means temporary. Foreign students should return home when they graduate. If employers seek to employ them after graduation, they should use the available employment-based visas, for which aliens can apply at a U.S. consulate.
Congress needs to prioritize American students, graduates, and employees, all of whom face real issues of labor disruption from AI. They don’t need the added, self-inflicted, statutorily unauthorized competition from foreign students who committed to our government that they would go home after receiving the generous opportunity to study in the U.S.
Copyright © 2026 The Washington Times, LLC.
