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FIRST ON FOX: The discovery of 10,000 “rogue workers” exploiting the national labor system has helped Republicans address the financial incentives behind the foreign worker pipeline that costs Americans hundreds of thousands of jobs a year.
Under current federal law, hundreds of thousands of foreign students and employers participating in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program are exempt from paying Social Security and Medicare taxes, which companies are required to pay to domestic workers. This led to the creation of a “significant financial incentive” for employers to hire foreign OPT workers over Americans.
Republican Representative Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin introduced a bill Thursday, titled the “OPT Fair Tax Act,” that would eliminate that incentive by requiring employers to pay the same Social Security and Medicare taxes paid by American workers. By closing the gap, Grothman believes the bill “helps create a level playing field for American students entering the workforce.”
The congressman told Fox News Digital that “Americans should not be put in jeopardy because Washington has created a gap in favor of hiring foreign workers over eligible American citizens.” He added that “too many young Americans graduating from our colleges and universities are forced to compete against a system that tilts the playing field against them.”
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Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., (center) dropped a bill Thursday to kill financial incentives behind a pipeline of foreign workers that cost Americans hundreds of thousands of jobs after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) uncovered 10,000 “bogus workers” exploiting the federal labor program. (Marvin Joseph / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Grothman’s bill is a House counterpart to a Senate bill introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in September.
Although Cotton’s bill has yet to pass, OPT has faced increased scrutiny after Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons announced that federal investigators have found more than 10,000 foreign students linked to “suspect employers” as part of a massive fraud scheme involving the program.
Lyons said OPT, which allows international students on F-1 visas to work temporarily in the country in jobs related to their field of study, “has tapped into an uncontrollable pipeline of guest workers with hundreds of thousands of foreign students working in the United States.”
He said “as the size of the program has increased, fraud has also increased.
“Today, we are announcing that we have identified more than 10,000 foreign students who claim to work for the most suspect employers, and that is among the top 25 OPT employers. This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
The ICE director also said that investigators have found what he called “phantom workers,” which he said are foreign students who received work permits through OPT but never showed up for work in the places they said they worked.
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Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arrives at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on oversight of ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and Citizenship and Immigration Services in Washington, DC, on Feb. 12, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Grothman told Fox News Digital that the findings “point to serious vulnerabilities within the OPT program.”
He said “reports that thousands of foreign students in the OPT program are tied to phantom workers and suspicious employers should alarm every American,” adding, “Right now, the federal government has created a financial incentive to hire foreign workers over Americans.”
Grothman said the tax scale chosen was important. He cited data collected by the Institute for Progress, a technology and industry research institute, which found that between the 2017 and 2022 fiscal years, an average of 330,000 students participated in OPT annually. The think tank also estimated that eliminating the tax exemption would increase federal revenue by between $27 billion and $36 billion over a 10-year period.
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A general view of the US Capitol Building from the top of the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, on May 2, 2026. (Ken Cedeno/Reuters)
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“Congress should focus on opening doors for young Americans, helping US graduates find good-paying jobs and ensuring that employers are encouraged to hire Americans first. Not creating an incentive for companies to pass on American talent,” he stressed.
“The American people deserve to know how many questionable employers have been able to work within the system for so long,” he continued. “Congress must put American workers first and restore integrity to programs that are at risk of abuse and exploitation.”
