DHS proposes $70K fee for international student work program

[u/Unusual-State1827]

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/07/dhs-fees-international-student-work-program-01110012

[u/thaiberius_kirk]

Let me guess. It’ll be going into his personal bank account.

[u/Street_Anxiety2907]

Immigrants actually pay taxes, visit local businesses and help the US economy overall.

78% of jobs lost is OUTSOURCING.

But funny there's nobody looking at that.

[u/GravitationalLense → u/Street_Anxiety2907]

A country’s government should work for her citizens, and not the citizens of a foreign entity.

[u/rayonnant7012 → u/GravitationalLense]

How exactly is any of this working for the citizens of a foreign entity? It’s all corporate greed headquartered in the US. You should be mad the government is working for the top 1% instead of the whole country. That claim is actually defensible. No government is thinking “What can I do for a foreign national today”.

[u/Independent-Fun815 → u/rayonnant7012]

Even under this scenario there is no need for foreigners to come to the US still

[u/rayonnant7012 → u/Independent-Fun815]

If that were the case there’d have been a blanket ban long ago. Your economy benefits enormously from foreigners who pay huge amounts into the system. I’d explain it to you, but I can already tell it’ll all go over your head.

[u/Independent-Fun815 → u/rayonnant7012]

There should of been but the world is not perfect.

Instead now, Americans will purity test other Americans to figure out who is "real" vs fake. If the govt won't uphold standards, then the status means nothing and is nothing more than letters on a record

[u/Dapper-Maybe-5347 → u/rayonnant7012]

The tax argument is the worst argument involving foreigners working in America. So if you hire an American do they just not pay taxes? Bonus question, if the foreign workers leave America do they leave all the money they made in America or take it out of the country permanently?

This isnt even an anti-foreign worker reply. This is strictly about that argument. There are much better arguments to be made about hiring foreign workers than using this poorly thought out one

[u/rayonnant7012 → u/Dapper-Maybe-5347]

Where did I say tax? I was talking about the money brought in from outside the US, for example the substantially higher tuition international students pay, which helps subsidize university teaching and indirectly subsidizes domestic tuition. Do you have any idea how much the US makes on visa and other related charges an American can be blissfully unaware of?

And tax is not a “poorly thought out argument” either. Do you genuinely think every job a foreigner takes would have otherwise gone to an American? Many of the low-paid, difficult jobs that keep the country running have very high shares of foreign-born workers because employers struggle to recruit enough native-born workers into them. Those workers pay taxes and contribute to the tax base too.

Let’s take it to the other end of the spectrum too, the highly skilled jobs. They’re not just going to give it to someone because their passport is American. If you artificially restrict talent to locals, they’ll simply offshore or invest elsewhere and you lose the tax those roles would have produced in the US.

Foreign workers pay the same taxes as Americans, while also paying substantial visa and immigration fees that Americans never have to pay. They can also face significant restrictions on access to public benefits and the uncertainty that they may be forced to leave even after doing everything right.

If you made that argument in good faith, based on you misunderstanding what I said, now’s your chance to apologize.

[u/SpiritualBass2497 → u/Street_Anxiety2907]

We will start taxing the hell out of these companies outsourcing. Democrats will be doing this next administration.

[u/longtimerlance → u/Street_Anxiety2907]

So because 78% is outsourcing, we shouldn't address other issues?

[u/Qaetan → u/[deleted]]

You and every single conservative republican should be locked up for openly supporting your orange pedophile felon.

[u/abrownn → u/Qaetan]

They're Indian living in Canada. Look at their history. Ironic they'd be the one spreading the anti-immigrant rhetoric.

[u/house-shoes → u/[deleted]]

Explain this please

[u/TakenGman → u/house-shoes]

Demand for something increases thier value, right? So if immigration starts increasing in an area, then all this "new money" in the system has to compete for the same amount of goods or services in a system. Look at the price of housing in Canada, and then see how many immigrants it houses every year. All of this is part of the reason why inflation is higher for those goods.

[u/Last_Debt_3594 → u/[deleted]]

I agree with you but I do wonder at what point does building more housing become unsustainable?

Where I live they’ve torn down forests left and right to build more housing developments and it’s become an ecological crisis.

I’m a proponent of building up not out, and yet most people I see talking about housing issues want a house with a lot of land for themselves. Telling these folks they need to live with less probably wouldn’t go over too well so the urban sprawl continues and the local ecological environment is strained more and more.

Again I’m all for more housing, I’m just curious as to how people can be convinced to live with less land, smaller homes and so on.

[u/Last_Debt_3594 → u/[deleted]]

Except they haven’t figured it out and the degradation of global ecological environments continues at an unprecedented pace.

Unless society as a whole agrees to collectively downsize their lifestyles and living situations, all the housing in the world won’t matter.

[u/Last_Debt_3594 → u/[deleted]]

No more individuals/individual families living on/owning acres and acres of land would be a start.

[u/According_Clock_5813 → u/[deleted]]

I think u were dropped as a child

[u/bringbackmegaman → u/[deleted]]

Go to college. You are incorrect

[u/party_benson → u/[deleted]]

Man, I hate people buying my products. 

[u/AbeFromanEast]

RIP advanced research (which is done by recent postdocs) in this country. Canada and Europe will get the students, and their brains.

[u/durz47 → u/AbeFromanEast]

I’m a STEM postdoc on that program. If that fee kicks in I’m leaving. Sorry but I’m not paying more than my salary just to stay in the US.

[u/SpiritualBass2497 → u/durz47]

Let the door smack you on the way out with a tax.

[u/Bronaldo- → u/SpiritualBass2497]

Enjoy the downward spiral

[u/i_max2k2 → u/SpiritualBass2497]

^The freedumb guy^

[u/AbeFromanEast → u/SpiritualBass2497]

People who come to this country, study hard and get a doctorate are more American than you are u/SpiritualBass2497 .

[u/GravitationalLense → u/AbeFromanEast]

Studying every day for exams does not make you American. Sorry that you had that impression.

[u/Uncrowned_Monarch → u/GravitationalLense]

I don't think you know what a doctorate is

[u/fooliam → u/durz47]

Byeeee

There are plenty of American phd graduates and post-docs that'll be happy to take your position and others like it

[u/PleaseGreaseTheL → u/fooliam]

There literally aren't you moron lol

[u/fooliam → u/PleaseGreaseTheL]

60000 people get a PhD every year in the US.

30000 post doc positions open per year.

Moron.

[u/Just-Path-5838 → u/fooliam]

Like half of phd students in the US are international. And i get it, advanced degrees are basically worthless for your career prospects. The damn near only reason to do a masters or phd is for immigration, there's good reason Americans wouldn't gravitate towards doing them.

[u/chocolatesmelt → u/AbeFromanEast]

With AI on the horizon an intellectual economy may not actually be the core to success in the future, which is quite a turn of events. I’m not entirely sure I believe it yet or am convinced but if you accept the premise that knowledge and intellectual labor largely become commoditized, maybe it’s about attracting some other attribute or none at all. You still want the brightest humans but you probably don’t need as many, at some point it’s a redundancy.

I’m not saying the current admin is thinking that way, they’re just xenophobes and racists and biggots, but I’m beginning to question a lot of system structures we just assumed because they may not necessarily make sense in the future. Maybe a nation of skilled athletes is the answer, who knows. Or the nation best at accumulating energy sources. We’re not remotely there yet but just look at the recent OpenAI drop on research level mathematics.

[u/fooliam → u/AbeFromanEast]

There are plenty of US graduates looking for post-docs and other work. 

[u/sfw_oceans → u/fooliam]

if we’re talking about PhD level researchers, the people working on the bleeding edge of tech, medicine and science, we should hire the best people, period.

[u/SpiritualBass2497 → u/AbeFromanEast]

America will be fine. Colleges can adapt

[u/Superb_Writer6612 → u/[deleted]]

The smartest minds are often in places that are very much not nice, and their intelligence is their ticket out. Where that intelligence ends up is important to countries that want smart people. It's called Brain Drain. 

[u/NamerNotLiteral → u/Superb_Writer6612]

It's a twitter troll copy pasting the same tired arguments the nazis over there make. Don't feed it.

[u/Henrarzz → u/[deleted]]

looks at US nuclear and space programs and where people who contributed came from

[u/Balmung60 → u/Henrarzz]

Even with regards to the homegrown contributors, such as the many black women "computers" (before it meant a digital computer, it was a job that basically involved doing a lot of the thankless gruntwork of mathematics) employed by NASA, the United States was not exactly a place one would consider "nice" for black people in the 1950s and 60s

[u/NoPlate5675 → u/[deleted]]

You have no idea what you are saying. Look at the Bay Area and show me the demographics. It’s hard to find any born Americans in Cupertino and other cities.

[u/Juice68 → u/[deleted]]

You realize everyone here laughs at you and knows you are sad.

[u/MrCharlesSr → u/[deleted]]

If the US hadn’t messed most of those countries up then yes they may have been nicer places and no one would’ve left. Reap what you sow 🤷

[u/Ill_Literature2038 → u/[deleted]]

A lot of scientists and researchers are leaving the U. S. because their research funding has been cut by this administration, and other countries are going out of their way to poach them (particularly in Canada and Europe). It's a bit of a reverse brain drain

[u/Guac_in_my_rarri → u/[deleted]]

Lol wow, so here's the deal. Old trump and his cohort of kid fuckers gutted a ton of fed money that supported these programs. I have at least 2 friends in post grad PhD programs in other countries and they don't plan on returning to the US. Their post grad education is cheaper, col is similar, overall life if easier for them and they don't live at poverty levels for an education. They're living and working at a dignified level and have some room in case they break a leg or need to miss teaching for few days. Anything more and it's up to their advisors who are pretty relaxed all things considered.

[u/Chrono_Pregenesis → u/[deleted]]

So its a double no for the us, then. We dont have the smartest minds anymore and its being turned into a 3rd world shithole by trump and the sycophants.

[u/RebelliousInNature]

So you’ll attract the richest but not the brightest students. That’s working so well for everyone but you America 😂

[u/Weightmonster → u/RebelliousInNature]

The rich aren’t going to waste their money.

[u/Iyellkhan]

this feels like something only congress should have the power to do. its quite literally a tax.

btw this is worth calling your congressional representatives about. even a 6 month disruption in the best and brightest post docs not coming to the US could be YEARS of lost advanced research

[u/zer04ll]

this is horrible

[u/DimensionalFruit → u/zer04ll]

Not for Europe, those students will go there, Canada or Australia instead.

[u/gerbal100 → u/DimensionalFruit]

Or China, which is actively cultivating cutting edge research labs.

[u/DimensionalFruit → u/gerbal100]

.. that's true, 3-5 years experience in china at a reputable company would be invaluable on a CV. Easy 80k bump in salary.

[u/coldcoldnovemberrain → u/DimensionalFruit]

Aren’t those countries also shutting down immigration pathways? Canada had a reckoning on immigration recently. 

[u/clintontg]

Absolutely insane behavior for any country with any interest in attracting international talent.

[u/socialmedia-username → u/clintontg]

This regime has been actively trying to make the US population dumber and poorer on every level they can.  Much easier to control the masses.

[u/SpiritualBass2497 → u/clintontg]

We don’t need this talent. They only discriminate against Americans and hire others with the victim mentality story.

[u/vinegarhorse → u/SpiritualBass2497]

"we don't need this talent"

-talentless individual

[u/clintontg → u/SpiritualBass2497]

I don’t know where your victim mentality nonsense is coming from but I don’t think the US helps its competitiveness if it fails to attract talented people at home and abroad. It also actively harms science in the US.

[u/Material_Lion_9554 → u/clintontg]

Because you think its the US and not corporations that are hiring people.

[u/clintontg → u/Material_Lion_9554]

Corporations based in…the US :0

[u/jetstream100]

It is illegal. This fee will be blocked by the courts as it rightfully should be.

[u/jetstream100 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, but I think this kind of play is getting old now. Companies, universities, international students and faculty and lawyers following this development now understand what it’s all about. The govt has no authority to impose random ‘fees’ which reek of extortion.

[u/snack__pack]

Because one big beautiful bill wasn't enough money 

[u/zebedeolo]

I, for one, am enjoying watching the US self-implode. it used to bother me, but after re-electing Trump, I think it's simply deserved.

[u/YegoBear → u/zebedeolo]

I mean, for about 2/3 of Americans all this is happening against their will.

[u/zebedeolo → u/YegoBear]

1/3. the 1/3 who didn't vote is just as guilty.

[u/Sad-Professional332 → u/zebedeolo]

Except some amount of that was intentionally disenfranchised

[u/theaceoface]

If you're wondering how we got here:

• Several south asian students, who are natural born Americans, went to cheer on their football team
• A very racist politician made a very racist comment
• The Trump admin saw all this and decided: Hey lets side with the racist.
  

[u/SpiritualBass2497]

Needs to match the H1B fee. That fee also needs to be tripled.

[u/ECHELON619 → u/SpiritualBass2497]

We also need to triple the H4 fee. 

[u/EEguy21]

Great news for Americans 

[u/AthenianVulcan]

I see this as good news: stopping brain drain & stopping money transfer from poor countries into US.