Global Courant
FIRST ON FOX — More than two dozen Republican lawmakers have done their best to urge the Supreme Court to address an immigrant visa case in the next legislative term that would have implications for curbing the executive’s reach.
The case involves a group of tech workers who dispute the existence of a student visa work program established by a federal rule of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that circumvents congressional oversight – which is necessary for such programs to run. find.
The optional on-the-job training program (OPT) has grown to become the largest individual guest worker program in the country and has been established entirely through regulation.
OPT allows foreign students with an F-1 visa to work for up to three years after graduation. Foreign countries in the OPT program are exempt from payroll taxes, effectively giving employers an 8% cost advantage in hiring them over U.S. workers.
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) makes no reference to postgraduate employment for F-1s and unequivocally states that the alien’s sole purpose in the United States is to pursue studies.
Homeland Security’s optional on-the-job training program has become the largest guest worker program in the country and has been established through regulation. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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Despite this, a DC Circuit Court panel found last year that the F-1 definition only talks about the admission of aliens into the United States and is silent about the terms of residence. In effect, the court said that as long as the executive follows the law when she first admits an alien, she can create whatever rules she wants to apply to the alien once they’re in the US.
The technology group is now appealing to the Supreme Court to overturn that decision, and has 31 Republican lawmakers on their side.
Rep. Brian Babin, co-chair of the House Border Security Caucus and signatory of the amicus brief. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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“Congress has authority over immigration law — NOT unelected bureaucrats,” R-Texas Representative Brian Babin, co-chair of the House Border Security Caucus and signer of the amicus brief, told Fox News Digital.
“My colleagues and I hope that the Supreme Court will overturn the D.C. Circuit Court ruling and challenge the executive branch’s efforts to liberalize and manipulate immigration laws without congressional authorization. This sets a dangerous precedent that cannot be ignored,” he said.
The Supreme Court on April 21, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
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Lawmakers said in their briefing that the DC Circuit’s decision “has far-reaching implications for the legislature beyond immigration law.”
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“Majority opinion sets a dangerous precedent where any action of Congress is ripe for executive scope and can simply be ignored. Where executive policy considerations can override the valid exercise of legislative functions, the separate but equal branches of the government is no longer equal,” it says in short.
The case is Washington Alliance of Technology Workers vs. Dept. or Homeland Security. The Supreme Court could decide this summer whether to hear the case.
Brianna Herlihy is a political writer for Fox News Digital.
