Representative Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S (AZ-09) issued the following statements after reintroducing H.R. 2315, the Fairness for High-Skilled Americans Act, legislation that would terminate the Optional Practical Training (OPT) Program administered by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service:
“The OPT program completely undercuts American workers, particularly higher-skilled workers and recent college graduates, by giving employers a tax incentive to hire inexpensive, foreign labor under the guise of student training.
Never authorized by Congress, OPT circumvents the H-1B visa cap set by Congress by allowing over 100,000 aliens admitted into our country on student visas to continue working in the United States for another three years after completing their academic studies.
OPT incentivizes greedy businesses to fire Americans and replace them with inexpensive foreign labor by avoiding having to pay FICA and Medicare payroll taxes and other employee benefits. The OPT program completely abandons young Americans who have spent years and tens of thousands of dollars pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics only to be pushed out of those fields by cheap foreigners.
Our government should not be incentivizing foreign employees over Americans. This badly flawed government program should be eliminated,” said Representative Paul Gosar.
