In the past year, Amazon and UPS each slashed over 14,000 U.S. jobs. Meanwhile, thousands of American college graduates—our nation’s future—are left scrambling for work they cannot find.
At the same time, the Optional Practical Training program (OPT) floods the market with foreign graduates who don’t carry the same payroll-tax burden as American citizens. Employers snap them up first—no questions asked.
OPT began as a bureaucratic afterthought, created by unelected regulators, never authorized by Congress. Over decades, corporate lobbyists and Washington insiders expanded it into a de facto back-door work-visa system.
The fallout is stark. College grads aged 23–27 now face unemployment several points above the national average. More alarming, long-term unemployment for that group has soared to 26%—a three-year high.
For those lucky enough to land jobs, over half occupy positions that don’t even require a degree. Even STEM majors aren’t immune: computer engineers suffer 7.5% unemployment, physics grads 7.8%.
In a cut-throat business environment, offering a de facto tax break to hire foreign grads is indefensible. American talent is sidelined to boost corporate bottom lines.
Adding insult to injury, Artificial Intelligence and robotics obliterate more roles every month. Amazon alone operates over a million warehouse robots—machines, not OPT students, are the real “workforce of the future.”
Our own graduate pipeline is clogging. Young Americans with diplomas in hand find walls where doors once stood. Dreams of careers and homes slip away.
Congress must repeal OPT now. There is no justification for allocating American jobs to foreign graduates under a decades-old, unaccountable regulation.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow rightly calls for ending post-graduation work authorizations for F-1 students. Congress must enshrine that in law immediately.
The generations who wield real power—Baby Boomers and Gen X—owe it to their successors to secure clear paths to work, homes, and families. OPT is an open invitation to outsource our future.
No more timid tweaks. Shut down OPT. Put American graduates first. Restore the promise that a U.S. diploma leads to an American job.
