- ICE is currently investigating over 10,000 foreign students for alleged fake employment claims related to the OPT program.
- Authorities identified shell companies and phantom employees at empty buildings and mailbox addresses during recent site visits.
- Students found in violation face loss of F-1 status and potential removal proceedings from the United States.
(NORTH TEXAS) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is investigating more than 10,000 foreign students over alleged fake employment claims tied to Optional Practical Training, a work program for F-1 international students.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons announced the inquiry on May 12, 2026 and said the agency had identified students who claimed to work for “highly suspect employers.” ICE said its review focused on the top 25 OPT employers.
At the same announcement, John Connick, HSI Executive Associate Director, described investigations that turned up empty buildings, locked doors, mailbox and post-office-box addresses, residential homes listed as worksites, and shell-company schemes. He also pointed to “phantom employees”, students listed as employed but not actually working at the claimed site.
North Texas figured directly in the review. ICE said site visits there included 18 OPT worksites.
Optional Practical Training allows F-1 students to work after they complete their studies, as long as the job is directly related to the student’s field of study. Standard post-completion OPT generally lasts 12 months, while some STEM graduates can receive an additional 24-month STEM OPT extension.
That structure gives graduates a way to stay in the United States and work legally after finishing school. It also creates a compliance trail, because the job must be real, the worksite must exist, and the training must match program rules.
ICE officials said some students under review may have listed employers that did not appear to operate as real businesses. Others, the agency said, claimed jobs at locations that were not actual worksites or used shell companies and pay-to-stay arrangements.
The agency’s concern goes beyond paperwork errors. ICE said some students may have failed to perform the work or training required under OPT and STEM OPT rules, even while records showed them as employed.
Lyons cast the inquiry in broad terms, calling OPT a “magnet for fraud.” He said the fraud appeared “deliberate” and “coordinated.”
Officials offered one Texas example to show why the agency is concentrating on employer clusters. A company reportedly claimed to employ 3 F-1 students, while government records showed more than 500 students linked to that employer.
That gap is the kind of discrepancy investigators are now using to identify suspect patterns. A small employer can sponsor legitimate workers, but a claim that does not match the business footprint can trigger scrutiny of both the company and the students attached to it.
ICE’s focus on the top 25 employers suggests the agency is looking for concentration points rather than isolated cases. Site visits, address checks, and records comparisons all point to an enforcement model built around verifying whether listed jobs exist in the first place.
The inquiry also places new pressure on the relationship between students and employers. Under OPT, students need employment that fits their degree field, while employers taking part in the program must be able to show that the work and training are genuine.
When that relationship breaks down, the immigration consequences can spread quickly. ICE said false or noncompliant employment can lead to loss of F-1 status, termination of OPT, removal proceedings, possible fraud or misrepresentation findings, and problems with future visas, green card applications, or reentry.
Those risks reach beyond a student’s first job after graduation. A record that raises fraud concerns can follow an applicant into later immigration filings, including cases that depend on lawful status, truthful prior representations, and a documented work history.
Employers face exposure as well if investigators conclude they served as shells, accepted names without providing real jobs, or helped sustain pay-to-stay arrangements. Lyons and Connick framed the issue as an organized pattern, not a loose collection of individual violations.
North Texas has become an early testing ground for that approach. The 18 site visits cited by ICE show the agency is pairing database reviews with on-the-ground checks of addresses and claimed worksites.
That matters for students who assumed a listed employer was enough to preserve status. ICE’s public description of empty offices, locked doors, and mailbox addresses indicates investigators are looking at the physical reality of the job, not just what appears in a filing system.
Students on OPT often move quickly from campus to employment, and many rely on small firms, startups, or consulting arrangements. ICE’s announcement suggests that those setups now face closer review when the business address, staffing pattern, or work claims do not hold up.
The agency did not describe the investigation as a narrow compliance sweep. Its language presented OPT fraud as a large-scale enforcement issue already tied to named officials, targeted employer groups, and field checks in places such as North Texas.
That shift leaves little room for the idea that suspect filings will pass unnoticed if they are buried among thousands of routine cases. ICE has already said it found more than 10,000 foreign students linked to alleged fake employment claims and built the review around employers it considers most suspect.
At the center of the inquiry is a simple question with high stakes: whether a student actually worked, at a real company, in a real job connected to the degree that made OPT available. ICE’s answer, in thousands of cases now under review, will shape not just current status but future access to the U.S. immigration system.
