Thanks Obama, gave foreign students 180,000 American jobs, cost 32 Billion

Our Community Organizer helping out big business.

A pro-immigrant program was expanded under President Obama that paid U.S. firms $2.7 billion to hire 180,000 foreign “students,” jobs that likely otherwise would have gone to Americans, according to a new report.

The so-called “Optional Practical Training” was supposedly set up for foreign students but actually included no training and put college graduates in the high-paying jobs for three years.

The Center for Immigration Studies, which on Friday urged President Trump to stop the program, estimated that the jobs paid $60,000, suggesting a total of $11 billion in annual wages lost to American workers, over $32 billion over three years. In his Inaugural Address, Trump advocated an “America First” theme.

“The best part of OPT for the foreign alums — and a devastating factor to U.S. resident college grads (both citizens and green card holders) — is that employers are given a $10,000-$15,000 bonus for hiring an alien rather than an American with the same salary.

“This is hard to believe, but true; recent administrations have waved a magic wand over the foreign grads and called them ‘students’ so that the usual payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare) do not apply to either their employers or to the students.

“So the employer, faced with two equally qualified candidates for, say, a $60,000 a year job (for three years), each candidate being willing to work for that salary, has his choice. If he hires the alien the total payroll costs for three years will be $180,000; if he hires the citizen alternative, the employer will pay $193,770. The higher the salary, the bigger the bonus to the employer hiring the alien.”

H/T and more: Washington Examiner

Filed under: Education Tagged: College students, Foreign students, Foreign workers, Obama, optional training program, Visa