Rulemaking by Announcement
The Biden administration expands OPT without bothering with the regulatory process
By John Miano on February 2, 2022
I recently wrote about how democracy is being replaced by the administrative state. Now we have another example of bureaucrats run amok.
While created in secrecy entirely by bureaucrats, the post-completion Optional Practical Training program (OPT) is now the largest guestworker program in the entire immigration system. OPT allows all aliens on student visas to work for a year after graduation. However, it allows graduates in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields to work for up to 42 months. As a practical matter, OPT can only function as a guestworker program for STEM fields. For other fields, the duration is too short.
Universities have been working overtime to reclassify non-STEM degrees as STEM in order to take advantage of the longer OPT duration.
As if the chaos at the border is not enough, the Biden administration has decided to expand the OPT program to invite even more foreign labor, as my colleague David North noted recently.
Notice that there has not even been a regulation. It is just an announcement.
https://cis.org/Miano/Rulemaking-Announcement
