Homeland Security proposes a $70,000 fee for foreign students seeking work permits after ICE flagged over 10,000 fraud cases in the OPT program.
Fox News reported that the Department of Homeland Security has put forward a rule that would charge F-1 visa holders $70,000 for an initial Optional Practical Training authorization and $30,000 for any later extension.
That dwarfs the current cost of roughly $500. The change aims straight at a student job pathway that ICE and the Student and Exchange Visitor Program say has been riddled with abuse.
Optional Practical Training lets foreign students on F-1 visas work in a field tied to their major. Designated school officials recommend them, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issues the employment papers. STEM graduates can seek an extra 24 months.
DHS says the program drifted far from that limited purpose.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement identified over 10,000 cases of foreign student visa fraud tied to Optional Practical Training. The Student and Exchange Visitor Program found widespread exploitation through non-compliant worksites and “pay-to-stay” schemes that keep people in the country under thin pretenses.
A DHS spokesperson framed the fees as a direct answer to that record.
"Optional practical training was never meant to be a back door into the American workforce, a subsidy for cheap labor or a prize for those who game the system,"
The same spokesperson added that the department is rewriting the incentives.
"DHS is upskilling OPT to require foreign students to justify their worth to employers. American workers should not have to compete against a program that has been turned into a pipeline for cheap foreign labor."
Officials also say the rule would push schools toward greater oversight and selectivity before they green-light any student for the program.
Under the proposal, the sticker shock falls on the foreign student seeking the work card. The practical effect lands on employers who have treated OPT as a low-cost labor channel and on colleges that have treated recommendations as routine paperwork.
DHS presents the numbers as a filter. Students who bring clear value can still make the case. Those who simply want an easy foothold face a price that matches the privilege.
The rule still faces a public comment period before any final version can take effect. Reporting notes that immediate legal challenges are expected. That pattern of courtroom fights over immigration enforcement has already appeared in other recent cases, including when a Boston judge froze Trump administration fines aimed at migrants who ignore deportation orders.
Doug Rand, director of the Talent Mobility Fund, an group that pushes to draw foreign STEM talent, took to LinkedIn to dismiss the plan.
"Don't Panic: DHS has no authority to slap a $70k fee on international students,"
He continued that the proposal would collapse under judicial review.
"Let's not overreact, this proposed rule isn't going to fare well in the courts, just as the $100k H-1B fee and other restrictionist policies have been struck down."
Rand’s argument treats the fee as another restrictionist move headed for the same fate as earlier visa price hikes. DHS counters that the status quo already failed American workers and invited fraud at scale.
The proposal sits inside a broader push to tighten programs that mix education visas with open-ended work access. Former acting ICE Director Jonathan Fahey has discussed the stakes for American workers in related commentary.
When an administration decides to draw hard lines on immigration tools, opponents routinely race to court. The same dynamic showed up when the Senate rejected limits on presidential authority in other arenas, as Rand Paul stood alone against curbs on Trump’s war powers. Executive branches that choose enforcement over inertia should expect that pushback.
Large policy shifts also require follow-through once the legal dust settles. Decisive calls on long-running federal matters have defined recent months, from approving an Army firing squad in a decades-old terrorism case to other high-stakes green lights.
Optional Practical Training began as a bridge from classroom to related work experience. It was never sold as a permanent discount labor pool or a second lottery for long-term stays.
When more than 10,000 fraud cases pile up inside one program, the agency charged with protecting the system has two choices: keep the cheap pathway open or raise the cost of abuse. DHS chose the second path.
Schools that rubber-stamp recommendations and employers that rely on under-priced foreign graduates will feel the pressure first. That is the point. Taxpayers and young American graduates already carry the downside when the rules go soft.
Other federal benefit decisions have moved with similar clarity when the White House sets priorities, including the decision to send $90 Medicare premium checks to more than 20 million seniors. Enforcement and fiscal choices both reveal who the government puts first.
Institutional resistance rarely stays quiet. Judges, advocacy groups, and open-borders voices will test every clause. That reality has even drawn pointed comments about loyalty and outcomes inside the courts themselves, as when Trump faulted his own high-court picks for repeated no votes. The fee fight will run the same gauntlet.
The comment period will produce the expected volume of protest. Courts will hear the claims of overreach. None of that erases the core record ICE already compiled: a student work program swollen with fraud and converted into a cheap-labor channel.
American workers deserve a system that stops treating their jobs as the consolation prize for foreign students who game the rules.
