U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has identified 10,000 foreign students, including several from India, who are suspected of misusing the Optional Practical Training component of their student visas by claiming to work for highly suspect employers, according to statements made by the agency.
OPT Under Fresh Federal Scrutiny
The agency said the students had come under scrutiny in connection with the Optional Practical Training programme, which allows foreign nationals entering the United States on student visas to work in the country for 12 months, and in some cases 24 months. The programme also enables students to transition to an H 1B visa sponsored by employers.
Speaking at a press conference on May 12, 2026, ICE acting director Todd Lyons said the OPT component of the student visa system had become a magnet for fraud and had been the subject of multiple investigations by the Department of Homeland Security. He said federal authorities had encountered cases involving espionage, biological threats, intellectual property theft, visa and employment fraud, as well as scams targeting elderly Americans, all allegedly carried out by individuals abusing their status as students.
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Investigators Cite India Based Management Cases
Lyons said investigators had conducted site visits and identified cases in which OPT beneficiaries were being managed by employees based in India. This was described as a violation of a programme requirement that mandates U.S. training and direction.
He said such findings had raised concerns about how the programme was being used in practice and whether the intended purpose of practical training was being bypassed. The reports do not provide numerical details about how many of the 10,000 flagged students were Indian nationals, but they make clear that several from India were among those identified.
ICE Says Programme Has Expanded Beyond Original Intent
Lyons said the OPT programme, introduced during the George W. Bush administration, had originally anticipated only a few thousand beneficiaries receiving training before returning to their home countries. Instead, he said, the system had expanded into what he described as an uncontrolled guest worker pipeline involving hundreds of thousands of foreign students working in the United States.
Lyons argued that as the programme’s size had grown, so had fraud. He described the alleged OPT misuse as a direct abuse of the goodwill of the American public, which allows foreign nationals access to the U.S. education system.
About the author – Ayesha Aayat is a law student and contributor covering cybercrime, online frauds, and digital safety concerns. Her writing aims to raise awareness about evolving cyber threats and legal responses.
