Challenge to Work Rule for Foreign Tech Students Dismissed

A regulation that allows international students who graduate with science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees to work in the U.S. for up to three years survived a legal challenge.

The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers argued that the rule that created the optional practical training program allows employers to skirt the H-1B temporary visa program for high-skilled workers without providing labor protections for U.S. workers. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., April 19 decided that the union representing U.S. STEM workers didn’t show that the Department of Homeland Security had done anything wrong with the regulation, either in its ...