Tech union urges Supreme Court to overturn graduate work scheme for migrants
Tech union urges Supreme Court to overturn graduate work scheme for migrants
Story by James Reinl, Social Affairs Correspondent, For Dailymail.Com • 3h ago
May 18, 2023
- Foreign tech students can work for US firms for three years after graduating
- West Coast tech union urges Supreme Court to protect their jobs and wages
- Advocates say it helps US tech firms remain the world's most competitive
US tech workers are urging the Supreme Court to reject an Obama-era expansion of a program that allows foreign student visa holders work in the US for a year after graduating because it is robbing Americans of jobs.
The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, or Washtech, says the federal government's Optional Practical Training (OPT) scheme lets some 200,000 migrants compete against them in US firms after studying here.
Defenders of the program, which is maintained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), say it lets migrants get real-world work experience in their field of study, while letting US tech firms bag fresh talent.
Washtech's lawyer, John Miano, from the conservative Immigration Reform Law Institute, says the OPT scheme lets tech firms push aside local hires for cheaper immigrant coders and programmers.
'Before law school, I was a computer programmer, and I worked at three American companies that replaced their American workers with foreign workers,' Miano told DailyMail.com.
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The number of OPT participants has risen to more than 200,000 in recent years, though numbers dipped in the pandemic, according to the Institute of International Education's Open Doors report© Provided by Daily Mail
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Migrants who study at US colleges are allowed to work for a limited time after graduation. They are especially popular in the tech sector. Pictured: New foreign students enrolled at Penn State University© Provided by Daily Mail
'I escaped the bullet myself, but I could see something was seriously wrong. The only real protection for American workers' is limiting the immigrants they're competing against.
The case highlights two key concerns of conservatives — that Americans are losing jobs to foreigners, and that federal government agencies exceed their powers by imposing rules that should be passed by Congress.
It will be assessed by one of the most court's most conservative configurations in generations, and comes amid a wave of layoffs by Meta, Microsoft, and many other major US technology firms.
Washtech, a union of some 300 West Coast tech workers, this month filed its appeal to the Supreme Court after a lower court in February kicked out its previous request.
The top US judicial body is expected to decide whether to hear the case by next month.
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The OPT has existed in some form since 1947.
Washtech challenged it after it was tweaked by the Obama administration in 2016, by letting students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields get work permits for up to two years beyond the typical one-year period.
The original lawsuit says federal immigration law only lets international students remain in the US while they are enrolled in school.
David North, a fellow of the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative think tank, says it incentivizes hiring migrants because an OPT tax break makes them about 8 percent cheaper than American workers.
'That means US employers get a bonus when hiring an alien rather than a citizen — and this bonus is, in effect, paid by our elderly, sick and unemployed,' North told DailyMail.com.
Miano says DHS officials agreed to expand the scheme at a private dinner with representatives of the tech sector because other foreign worker programs, such as the H-1B, were capped.
Immigration rules should be set by elected officials on Capitol Hill, he said.
'Is America a democracy where major programs are created by a Congress that has to answer to the people — or an aristocracy where lobbyists and bureaucrats create major programs in secret over dinner parties?' said Miano.
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Migrants with science and technology backgrounds are can work in the US for three years after graduation © Provided by Daily Mail
The number of OPT participants has risen from about 30,000 in the early 2000s to more than 200,000 in recent years, though numbers dipped in the pandemic, according to the Institute of International Education's Open Doors report.
The union is pitted against DHS, which oversees the OPT program. The department did not answer our request for comment.
Major business groups including the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have intervened in the case to defend the OPT scheme.
They say it helps companies address a lack of qualified US workers.
Wolfsdorf Rosenthal, an immigration law firm, says the OPT scheme buys some time for foreigners who study in the US to find an employer, when otherwise they would have to leave.
'If we don’t retain international students in the US after they complete their courses of study, they’ll take their skills elsewhere and go to work for our competitors,' the firm said in a statement.
The US would then lose out to Australia, Canada, China, and India, which have post-graduate work programs, they added.
Larry Ebner, from the Atlantic Legal Foundation, which has filed papers related to the appeal, said the Supreme Court only hears about 5 percent of the thousands of cases it is asked to review each year.
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