The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has proposed a new rule that would offer employers $12,000 to hire any foreign students who are going to school for one of the STEM degrees, which include science, technology, engineering and mathematics, according to Investment Watch Blog.
"Our nation will benefit from keeping international students here, educated in U.S. colleges and universities here while they receive additional training, rather than sending them out of the country," Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldaña said in a statement Friday. "At the same time, U.S. employers will benefit from the increased ability to rely on the skills acquired by U.S. educated-STEM students, as well as their knowledge of markets in their home countries."
However, not everyone agrees that this is the best idea for American students, who do not have the same hiring incentive.
"It will punish American STEM students competing for those same jobs. And, they added, in adjusting how the foreign students are categorized as employees, they get out of paying payroll taxes used to help fund programs like Social Security and Medicare," said the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), The Washington Examiner reported.
David North, who works for CIS, has more detailed input on the matter. "In the current document, DHS proposes to extend the additional 17 months for STEM workers to 24 months; thus from a total period of 29 months to 36 months, about a 20 percent increase. If the bonus given to employers for hiring a STEM graduate is worth $10,000 under the old rules, it is now worth $12,000, and is that much more likely to cause an employer to hire a former F-1 student than a green card or citizen graduate," North wrote in an analysis of the rule, according to Breitbart.
The rule is currently in the comment period, which ends on Nov. 18. The finalization of the rule will need to be in place prior to February 2016.
