SCOOP: Rick Scott Moves to Terminate DHS Program That Incentivizes Hiring Foreign Grads

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Sen. Rick Scott will introduce a bill designed to end the Optional Practical Training visa program, which incentivizes employers to hire foreign students.

The Florida Republican’s “Prioritizing American Talent Act” would prohibit Department of Homeland Security funding from being used to help foreigners secure employment in the U.S.

The Optional Practical Training program, created in 1992, allows international students to remain in the United States to work for nearly four years after graduation. Employers receive a tax break for hiring the graduates under the program, which some say gives foreign nationals an advantage over U.S. citizens. 

Scott has said the OPT program creates a national security risk by allowing Chinese students to access sensitive technology and cutting-edge research at top U.S. companies and universities before returning home.

“We need to make more jobs available for hardworking Americans, not foreign workers who come over to exploit the system—including thousands from Communist China,” Scott said in a statement to The Daily Signal. “This is why we need to end the Optional Practical Training Program, which has allowed employers to import foreign labor under the guise of job training. That’s why I am proud to introduce this bill to end it.”

While the Department of Homeland Security has the authority to end the program by issuing a new rule, President Donald Trump’s administration has not publicly begun the rulemaking process, leading some conservative members of Congress to propose their own bills to end the program.

“We need to make sure that Americans who work hard and play by the rules still have the chance to live their American dream,” Scott said.

Scott told the Daily Signal people are “shocked” whenever he talks about OPT.

“It makes you mad,” he said. “We all pay our taxes, and then we create incentives for our companies in our country to hire foreign workers.”

“This should happen today, one, to help Americans get jobs, and number two, we got to get rid of this for the fraud,” he said. “Number three, we’ve got a lot of people here from Communist China, they’re spying on us and stealing things from our companies.”