White House Pressures Lawmakers in Missouri, Tennessee on AI Safeguard Bills

What Lawmakers Say About Virologist Calling Out Fauci, NIH on COVID

EXCLUSIVE: Senator Urges Trump to End Program That Gives US Jobs to Foreign Graduates

‘HUMILIATING DEFEAT’: UK Prime Minister Pulls Deal to Sacrifice Islands Housing Key US Military Base

EXCLUSIVE: Randy Fine Joins House Freedom Caucus

EXCLUSIVE: ICE Announces Arrests of Several Violent Criminals and Sex Offenders

Obama Judge Halts Trump Effort to End Parole for Hundreds of Thousands

House Passes Legislation to Combat Mexican Government’s Seizure of American-Owned Port

How China Dominates the World’s Critical Minerals Production

Reclaiming the Lunar High Ground

The Space Race Is Back: NASA Prepares for Liftoff of Deep Space Exploration Crew

China’s Military Went Silent Around Taiwan for First Time in Years. Why?

Louisiana Senate Primary Tests Power of Trump Endorsement

As House Returns Next Week, Giant Tasks Loom

EXCLUSIVE: Freedom Caucus Takes Strong Stand on Amnesty

As Trump Seeks Iran Deal, Congress Wants Say on Foreign Policy

Spanberger Is ‘Taking Credit’ for Youngkin’s Economic Deals

Trump’s Election Integrity Order Faces Wave of Lawsuits Before Dem-Appointed Judges

Democrats Sue to Stop Trump’s Latest Election Integrity Effort

Trump Mail-In Ballot Order Sets Up Battle With States

Trump Bullish on Iran Deal, but Uncertainty Remains

Where Do Dem Presidential Favorites Stand on Israel?

 PoliticsSecurityNews

Trump Claims Gold Star Families Told Him to ‘Finish the Job’ in Iran

Citing ‘Echo Chamber’ on Iran, Trump Counterterrorism Chief Resigns

Conservative and Proud: Is the Right Representing Women? 

Girl Boss vs. Trad Wife: Forced to Choose?

Beyond the Oyster Fork: An Etiquette Expert’s Tips for ‘Relationships, Work, and Life’

Is the Iran Operation ‘America First’?

Victor Davis Hanson: Why Trump Grew Frustrated With Pam Bondi

International Commentary

‘We’ll Be Your Canada’: Brutal Reality Check for NATO Free Riders

If Donald Trump Did What Obama Did, Media Would Cheer—So Why the Outrage Now?

Victor Davis Hanson: Trump Could Crush Iran, So Why Doesn’t He?

EXCLUSIVE: Senator Urges Trump to End Program That Gives US Jobs to Foreign Graduates

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / @TheElizMitchell

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell is the White House Correspondent for "The Daily Signal." Send her an email.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Sen. Rick Scott is urging the White House to end the Optional Practical Training work permit program, which incentivizes employers to give jobs to foreign students.

“The OPT program should not exist; it is a purely regulatory creation with no statutory basis,” the Florida Republican wrote in a letter obtained by The Daily Signal.

The Optional Practical Training (OTP) program, created in 1992, allows foreign students to remain in the United States to work for nearly four years after graduation. Scott says this takes jobs away from U.S.-born college graduates.

Employers receive a tax break for hiring foreign graduates under the program, giving foreigners an advantage over U.S. citizens, Scott argues.

“The jobless rate for recent graduates with computer engineering degrees is nearly double the general unemployment rate,” the letter says, “and the unemployment rate for recent computer science graduates is over 50% higher than the general jobless rate.”

More than half a million student visa holders currently have OPT work permits, the letter says.

Scott argues this creates a national security risk by bolstering China.

“Many OPT recipients from Communist China have jobs in universities and Big Tech firms, giving them access to sensitive technological information and intellectual property,” Scott wrote. “We cannot continue opening the door to an enemy nation that will happily use our own research against us.”

The Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman warned in a 2020 report that the OPT and STEM OPT programs “have remained a source of concern in recent years due to their vulnerability to fraud and indicators that they are being leveraged by foreign governments as a means of conducting espionage or illicit technology transfer in the STEM areas.”

More than 33,000 Chinese nationals hold special STEM work permits under the program that allow them to stay in the U.S.

Scott cited reports that the Trump administration planned to end the program.

The Department of Homeland Security has said it “will amend existing regulations to address fraud and national security concerns, [and] protect U.S. workers from being displaced by foreign nationals.“

Before President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2025, Forbes reported that the “upcoming Trump administration rule is expected to end or restrict Optional Practical Training.”

Rubio Debunks ‘Torture’ Claim During Senate Testimony

The Urgent Need for the UK’s Muslim Rape Gang Inquiry and Lessons for the US

Marco Rubio in Munich: ‘We Want an Alliance That Boldly Races to the Future’

Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE

Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.

The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.

In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.

You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.

The Tony Kinnett Cast

The Daily Signal Podcast

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