Crony capitalism and regulator-created law
Exclusive: Craige McMillan explains OPT program that allows colleges to triple-dip
Published: 2 days ago
Craige McMillan

“Crony capitalism” might seem like just another mudslinging weapon to use at the next campaign stop. Does it really mean anything? Does it affect anybody? Why should I care?

For starters, if you attended a college or university since 1992, or have kids who did, you’re a participant. You didn’t know it, but you “played.” You just didn’t get “paid.” But others did.

It’s hard to believe that something as corrupt as the OPT program could survive in the shadows since 1992. Never heard of it? Well, Optional Practical Training is a regulator-created law. Congressional lawmaking is for the “little people.” Those in the know with fat checkbooks just get a bureaucrat to create their laws and hide them away.

Here’s what makes OPT crony capitalism. Foreign university grads are eligible for three years of work permits in the U.S. Companies get tax breaks for hiring them; no need to interview American grads. Universities get fat foreign tuition payments. Lawmakers get bribes campaign contributions.

In 2016 the OPT program totaled 329,158 job seekers. When universities hire foreign grads, they get tax breaks, too. That lets them triple-dip: Foreign tuition money into their coffers, cheap labor and domestic tax breaks.

American students get … debt, unemployment and lifetime depressed earnings. When your early job earnings are depressed, which is what this program is designed to do, your lifetime earnings are depressed.

Who cares, right? You’re just an American. Shut up and pay! This country belongs to the world!

What America gets out of all this is a cultural cesspool of arrogant, overpaid, morally moronic college professors who can’t be fired unless they’re Christian or voted Republican. The rest of us get chronic hopelessness and depression.

Crony capitalism can’t survive without politicians, however. When you look up what our fine, outstanding corporate citizens have contributed – and to which politicians the money has gone – you will understand how grateful these corporate titans have been for this wonderful tool to cut their taxes, hire cheap, overseas labor and depress home-grown, American-born graduates wages for their entire career.

I guess the student-loan-indebted children of this nation, many of whom live at home with their parents because of government-sponsored corporate and university tax breaks and hiring policies, should be grateful, eh? This way their would-have-been corporate bosses can have bigger houses, fancier cars and unimaginable fortunes stashed away. This is most fortunate, as it gives them time to advocate for higher taxes on the rest of us to help all the people they’ve walked over on their way to the top.

Pat yourself on the back, Mom, Dad, millennials. You bought it. You paid for it. You’re still paying. You will pay – for the rest of your life. If you want to know who to thank for all this, read Neil Munro’s excellent article.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/...es-get-us-jobs/

http://www.wnd.com/2017/06/crony-capital...or-created-law/

As you read these numers remembers OPT visas are in addition to H-1B and L-1 visas which are also used to replace American STEM workers.

"The federal government quietly helped and rewarded companies and universities which hired roughly 330,000 cheap foreign graduates in 2016 instead of hiring American graduates, many of whom are deep in debt.

The little-known “Optional Practical Training” program has grown from 91,140 new foreign job-seekers in 2009 to 329,158 new job-seekers in 2016, according to data provided by the Department of Homeland Security. That is almost a four-fold increase in seven years — and the program is growing even larger in 2017.

There is no cap on the OPT program, which quietly and semi-automatically gives work permits lasting up to three years when requested by foreign students who graduate from U.S. universities and colleges. Companies are not required to even interview Americans before hiring OPT graduates — and they get tax breaks for hiring foreigners over Americans.

“The government is enticing employers to hire foreigners instead of Americans … it is ridiculous,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies. Even the middle-class Americans who have downplayed the impact of cheap-labor immigration on blue-collar Americans should be alarmed by the government’s discrimination against their own college-graduate children, he added."

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Under the new transparency rules established by DHS secretary John Kelly, DHS officials also provided Breitbart with the initial OPT numbers for 2017. That data showed the OPT program in the first half of 2017 by giving work permits to 255,412 foreign students, including 57,315 high-skill technology graduates. That half-year number for 2017 is larger than the 2014 total.



These high numbers likely understate the scale of the OPT outsourcing program, because the federal government also allows foreign students to get a one-year work permit via the “Curriculum Practical Training” program before they graduate into the OPT program. If 100,000 students used that CPT program in 2016, then the combined CPT and OPT programs delivered almost 450,000 white-collar American jobs to foreign students and graduates in 2016.

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The annual inflow of new foreign OPT workers is now roughly three times larger than the annual inflow of 110,000 H-1B white-collar contract workers. However, the H-1B program offers longer visas to foreign workers, so it keeps a larger population of roughly 650,000 foreign white-collar workers in the United States, compared to roughly 35o,000 OPT workers.

The H-1B visas help companies hire foreign white-collar workers to take the place of the experienced American professionals who need decent salaries to help support and educate their children.

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Many American college graduates are threatened by OPT, partly because the program allows foreign students to take any job, but also because the government grants three-year work permits to students who take “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math” jobs — but those STEM jobs are very expansively described. They include:

dairy science… horticultural science… environmental studies … natural resources conservation … urban forestry … artificial intelligence … computer graphics … solar energy … naval science … cyber/electronic operations and warfare … nutrition sciences … sustainability studies … child psychology … archaeology … medical science … veterinary physiology … business statistics … management science.

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Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering Technology/Technician … solar energy … welding … industrial production … quality control … automotive engineering … [and] biology.

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GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan backs programs that allow low-tech business to import cheap foreign workers instead of hiring U.S. workers. “We need to have an immigration system that is wired for what our economy needs … so let’s find out where those gaps in our labor markets are and have our immigration system wired for that,” Ryan said in 2016.

President Barack Obama declared in 2014 that Americans do not have the right to favor their fellow citizens over foreigners, ...

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http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/...es-get-us-jobs/


Add to all these numbers guest worker visa overstays