A decades-old training program for international students is sticking around despite the Trump administration’s tightening of the reins on most other immigration-related programs.
“Imagine a guestworker program with looser rules, less oversight and enforcement, and far less transparency” than the H-1B visa program, Howard University professor Ron Hira said. “You don’t have to imagine—we have one—it’s the easily exploitable” optional practical training program, he said in an email.
Optional practical training, or OPT, allows international students at U.S. colleges and universities to work for at least a year after graduating while still maintaining their F-1 student visas.
OPT is frequently ...