OPT fraud: 10,000 foreign students, including Indians, under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement scanner

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it found 10,000 foreign students, including those from India, were abusing the Optional Practical Training (OPT) component of their visas and claiming to work for highly questionable employers.

OPT allows foreign nationals who enter the United States on a student visa to work in the United States for 12, and in some cases, 24 months. It also allows students to transition to an employer-sponsored H-1B visa.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said the OPT component of the student visa program “has become a magnet for fraud” and has been the subject of multiple investigations by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“We have seen espionage, biothreats, intellectual property theft, visa and employment fraud, and even fraud targeting older Americans all carried out by people abusing their student status,” Mr. Lyons said.

“Our nation will not tolerate security threats from the foreign student program,” Mr. Lyons said.

Mr. Lyons and other officials described how federal investigators conducted field visits, finding, among other things, cases in which OPT beneficiaries were “managed” by India-based employees in violation of a provision of the program that requires U.S. training and guidance.

The OPT program, announced during the George W. Bush administration, is expected to get only a few thousand beneficiaries trained before returning home, Mr. Lyons said.

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“Instead, OPT has become an uncontrolled guest worker channel with hundreds of thousands of foreign students working in the United States. As the size of the program has grown, so has the fraud,” he said.

Mr. Lyons called the OPT scam a blatant attack on the goodwill of the American people, who generously allow foreign nationals access to their education system.