A bipartisan pair is pushing back on President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the program that allows hundreds of thousands of foreign students to work in the US for a year after graduation. Representatives Sam Liccardo (D-CA) and Jay Obernolte (R-CA) introduced a bill that would codify Optional Practical Training (OPT), which allows international students to work in their field of study for 12 months, with an extension of up to 24 months for STEM students.
The OPT was introduced in 1992 and serves as a bridge between student visas, or F-1s, and H-1Bs, a visa category issued to foreign nationals working for US companies. But the OPT is now under threat from the Trump administration, which has raised the possibility of eliminating it entirely as part of a broader crackdown on legal immigration. Liccardo and Obernolte are hoping to garner bipartisan support for the program, which until recently flew under the radar and faced little opposition from either party.
According to data from the Institute for Progress, between 2006 and 2022, 56 percent of international students entering the country on F-1 visas enrolled in OPT. Students with master’s degrees are more likely to enroll in OPT than students with undergraduate degrees, and students in STEM fields are more likely to use the program to find work in the US than other fields. Data from the Department of Homeland Security shows that 165,524 foreign students took the STEM OPT in 2024 alone. STEM PhDs have the highest participation rates in OPT, with 76 percent of graduates enrolled in the program.
“The OPT program enables thousands of the best and brightest from around the world to become educated in the United States and pave the way to contribute to our economy,” said bill cosponsor Liccardo. The Verge. “The alternative to OPT is to educate these talented people and then send them back to their countries of origin, where they will start companies to compete against us.”
Congress has not passed any meaningful immigration reform in decades, and the OPT was not created by law at all. President George H.W. Bush established the program in 1992 under the authority of the Justice Department, which oversaw the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the predecessor of ICE, until DHS began operations in 2003. The OPT program is now administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency within DHS that deals with legal immigration.
When new regulations have been issued regarding the OPT, they have always expanded the program rather than reducing its scope: both George W. Bush and Barack Obama have extended the OPT period for students with STEM degrees, who can now work in the US for up to 36 months.
“It has never had any statutory existence,” Liccardo said, “which is why in this environment, where every two hours there’s a new idea about how this administration can cut off the United States from the world — whether it’s stifling talent, or exports, or relationships with our allies — we want to codify it to make sure that this valuable program continues to help us drive the American economy.”
Although OPT enjoys broad bipartisan support, the program has faced legal challenges for more than a decade. The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers sued DHS in 2014 after the Obama administration extended STEM OPT by 17 months, arguing that the change harmed American workers. The lawsuit also claimed that DHS overstepped its regulatory authority when creating the OPT. In an amicus brief filed in 2019, more than 100 colleges said that ending the OPT would make it harder for them “to compete for international students, especially at a time when global competition is fierce and international students are already questioning whether they are welcome in the United States in light of recent changes in immigration policy and enforcement.”
During the May 2025 nomination hearing, Trump’s choice to head USCIS was Joseph B. Edlow promised to end the OPT. Edlow, who was confirmed by the Senate, said the OPT has been “mismanaged”, adding that he supports a “regulatory and sub-regulatory program that would allow us to remove employment authorization for international students after they leave school”. Many groups that support immigration restrictions, including the right-wing Center for Immigration Studies, have long called for ending the OPT, which they say depresses the wages of American workers.
There were some reports last fall that the Trump administration might issue a rule to this effect as early as 2026, but no changes have been made to the OPT yet. Yet, in addition to conducting massive ICE raids across the country, the Trump administration is pushing to restrict many types of legal immigration. It increased the fee for H-1B visas to $100,000 and imposed a full or partial travel ban on citizens of 20 countries. Although Trump has previously said he would like to give a green card to every international student who graduates from a US university, it is more likely that his administration will take steps to limit the OPT or get rid of it altogether.
Liccardo, who sponsored the bill codifying OPT, said ending the program would have downstream effects that would harm all Americans. “At a moment when China is notably outpacing the United States in many technologies and industries, from solar and energy storage to now biotech,” he said, “we cannot afford to lose American-trained, American-educated engineers, scientists, and innovators to boost the economies of our rivals.”
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