Department of Homeland Security Cracks Down on Alleged Optional Practical Training Fraud

On October 21, 2020, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested15 nonimmigrant F-1 status students for OPT-related fraud in an investigation called Operation OPTical Illusion.  As reported by Inside Higher Ed, the Acting Director of USCIS Kenneth Cuccinelli “warned of coming actions against DSOs or designated school officials, employees of individual colleges who are responsible for maintaining international students' records in a federal government database and overseeing their institutions’ compliance with federal student visa regulations, including the OPT regulations. 

Cuccinelli said DHS expects to terminate ‘a fair number’ of designated school officials. ‘What we have seen in this area is what I would call not likely complicit, but a willful ignorance or a level of negligence that leads us down the path of terminating their role as designated school officials,’ he said.”