California STEM Push Backfires: Schmitt Calls OPT a ‘Backdoor Jobs Program’ for Foreign Workers
1st May 2026
California college graduates have been struggling to take their next steps into the career world. According to one congressman, the issue is not a lack of jobs, but a prioritization of foreign workers.
For years, the Golden State’s Bay Area has been a haven for jobs within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
But Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt told the Daily Signal that companies and universities have been passing up American workers and instead relying on temporary employment tied to international students’ major area of study—known as Optional Practical Training (OPT).
“We went from displacing blue-collar workers with sending jobs overseas, and then illegal immigrants suppressing wages and taking other jobs,” Schmitt said. “Then you also have white-collar job issue[s] with H-1B visa[s], which we tried to highlight, but also displacing recent grads and American students through these programs like OPT.”