ICE Knocking on Doors of Companies Hiring Foreign Tech Students

Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators are visiting workplaces to check employers’ compliance with a government program that allows foreign students to work in the U.S. after graduation.

Some attorneys are concerned the move could further limit legal immigration for skilled workers, especially the tech-savvy students who are eligible to work an extra year under the program, known as Optional Practical Training, or OPT.

The compliance checks are “within their authority,” but ICE’s exercise of that authority has been “very recent,” said Karine Wenger of the immigration law firm Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy in San Diego. “It looked like ...