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EXCLUSIVE: ‘Phantom employees’ scandal spurs GOP crackdown on $36B incentive for companies to bypass Americans
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FIRST ON FOX: The discovery of 10,000 «phantom employees» exploiting a federal work program has helped spur Republicans to tackle the financial incentives behind a foreign worker pipeline costing Americans hundreds of thousands of jobs per year.
Under current federal law, hundreds of thousands of foreign students and employers participating in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) extension program are exempt from paying Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, which companies are required to pay for domestic workers. This has led to the creation of a «significant financial incentive» for employers to hire foreign OPT workers over Americans.
Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin introduced a bill Thursday, titled the «OPT Fair Tax Act,» that eliminates that incentive by requiring employers to pay the same Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes paid for American workers. By closing the loophole, Grothman believes the bill «helps create a more level playing field for American graduates entering the workforce.»
The congressman told Fox News Digital that «Americans should not be put at a disadvantage because Washington created a loophole that favors hiring foreign workers over qualified U.S. citizens.» He added that «too many young Americans graduating from our colleges and universities are forced to compete against a system that tilts the playing field against them.»
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Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., (center) dropped a bill Thursday to kill the financial incentives behind a foreign worker pipeline costing Americans hundreds of thousands of jobs after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) uncovered 10,000 «phantom employees» exploiting a federal work program. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Grothman’s bill is the House companion to a Senate bill introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in September.
Though Cotton’s bill has not passed, OPT has faced increased scrutiny after Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons announced federal investigators uncovered more than 10,000 foreign students connected to «suspect employers» as part of a massive fraud scheme involving the program.
Lyons said that OPT, which lets international students on F-1 visas work temporarily in the country in jobs related to their field of study, had «ballooned into an uncontrolled guest worker pipeline with hundreds of thousands of foreign students working in the United States.»
He said that «as the program size exploded, so has the fraud.»
«Today, we are announcing we have identified over 10,000 foreign students who claim to be working for highly suspect employers, and that’s just among the top 25 OPT employers. This is only the tip of the iceberg,» he said.
The ICE director also said investigators uncovered what he referred to as «phantom employees,» who he said are foreign students who obtained work authorization through OPT but never actually showed up for work at the sites they claimed to work out of.
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Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arrives for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on oversight of ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and Citizenship and Immigration Services in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 12, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Grothman told Fox News Digital that these findings «point to serious vulnerabilities within the OPT program.»
He said that «reports that thousands of foreign students in the OPT program were tied to phantom employees and suspicious employers should alarm every American,» adding, «Right now, the federal government has created a financial incentive to hire foreign workers over Americans.»
Grothman said the scale of the tax preference has been significant. He pointed to data gathered by the technology and industry think tank Institute for Progress, which found that between fiscal years 2017 and 2022, an average of approximately 330,000 students participated in OPT annually. The think tank also estimated that eliminating the tax exemption would increase federal revenue by between $27 billion and $36 billion over a 10-year period.
GOP BILL TARGETS BLUE STATE FOR BILLIONS IN COVID-ERA UNEMPLOYMENT DEBT DUMPED ON BUSINESSES
A general view of the U.S. Capitol Building from the top of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., on May 2, 2026. (Ken Cedeno/Reuters)
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«Congress should be focused on opening doors for young Americans, helping U.S. graduates find good-paying jobs and ensuring employers are encouraged to hire Americans first. Not creating incentives for companies to bypass American talent,» he emphasized.
«The American people deserve to know how so many questionable employers were able to operate within the system for so long,» he continued. «Congress should be prioritizing American workers and restoring integrity to programs that have become increasingly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.»
jobs, republicans, immigration, social security, congress, house of representatives politics
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South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden fended off a primary challenge from businessman and Bitcoin evangelist Toby Doeden on Tuesday, winning the first gubernatorial primary runoff in state history and advancing to the November general election.
The Associated Press called the race for Rhoden within minutes of final polls closing. He had received 70.5% of the vote compared with Doeden’s 29.5% at the time it was called, with approximately 25% of the expected vote counted.
The election marked the first time South Dakota voters were asked to settle a gubernatorial nomination through a primary runoff. State law requires a runoff between the two leading candidates when no contender for governor, U.S. Senate or U.S. House receives at least 35% of the primary vote.
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South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden (left) and primary challenger Republican candidate for governor Toby Doeden (right) (Toby Doeden for South Dakota/Getty Images)
The head-to-head contest followed a four-way June primary in which Doeden finished first with 30.6% of the vote and Rhoden placed second with 25.2%, leaving both short of the 35% needed to secure the nomination outright. Rhoden became governor in early 2025 after Kristi Noem left to join the Trump administration, while Doeden entered the race as a businessman and political newcomer.
Doeden also built a public profile as a Bitcoin evangelist. He said he began investing «very, very heavily» in the cryptocurrency around 2020 after devoting roughly 500 hours to researching it, eventually converting nearly all the cash reserves from his companies that he did not expect to need into Bitcoin.
«I will buy bitcoin forever, every single day,» Doeden previously said on his podcast, according to the South Dakota Searchlight. «We mine bitcoin, we buy bitcoin.»
Doeden also supported legislation that would have allowed the South Dakota Investment Council, which manages public employee pension funds and other state investments, to invest in Bitcoin. He went further by calling for South Dakota to establish a state Bitcoin reserve – a move state investment and budget officials opposed.
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Tuesday’s winner advances to face former Democratic state Sen. Dan Ahlers in November. South Dakota has not had a Democratic governor since Harvey Wollman left office in 1979, and no Democrat has been elected to the office there since Richard Kneip won re-election in 1974. Wollman became governor automatically as lieutenant governor when Kneip resigned.
In the run-up to Tuesday’s primary runoff, property taxes were among the defining issues of the campaign. Doeden campaigned on eliminating property taxes, while Rhoden’s campaign portrayed Doeden’s proposal as fiscally reckless, arguing it could leave local governments and schools with a major funding shortfall.
Meanwhile, Rhoden’s campaign highlighted other tax relief measures that the governor signed back in March, which Rhoden’s campaign website describes as the «largest» property tax cut in the state’s history.
South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden speaks during a rally at Mount Rushmore National Memorial on July 03, 2026 in Keystone, South Dakota. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
During the race, Doeden portrayed Rhoden as part of South Dakota’s entrenched political class, declaring after the June primary that «the career politicians told me» an outsider could not break through against three longtime officeholders.
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Rhoden pushed back on the attack, saying Doeden was trying to «make hay» out of calling him a career politician and describing that characterization as «such a warped viewpoint,» during an interview with the South Dakota Public Broadcasting network. Rhoden argued that his years in the Legislature gave him practical experience writing laws and then returning home to live under them.
President Donald Trump did not publicly weigh in with an endorsement in the runoff, according to a review by Fox News Digital. Trump thanked Rhoden by name during his July 3 remarks at Mount Rushmore but did not mention the governor’s race. Doeden, meanwhile, campaigned as a «fierce Trump supporter» who said he would help implement the president’s «America First agenda.»
south dakota, gubernatorial, state and local primaries, elections, politics
INTERNACIONAL
Benjamin Netanyahu y Donald Trump buscaron limar asperezas en el primer encuentro desde el inicio de la guerra en Oriente Medio
El presidente estadounidense, Donald Trump, recibió el martes al primer ministro israelí, Benjamin Netanyahu, en una reunión calificada de «positiva» por ambas partes, que les permitió reafirmar su rechazo a que Irán se dote de armas nucleares.
Fue el primer encuentro entre ambos desde los ataques conjuntos de Estados Unidos e Israel contra Irán el 28 de febrero, que desató la guerra en Oriente Medio, y tras desacuerdos públicos sobre el conflicto.
En un video difundido por el propio Netanyahu, el primer ministro israelí aseguró haber tenido «una de las mejores conversaciones que he tenido con el presidente de Estados Unidos» y que ambos se ratificaron en su objetivo común: «asegurarse de que Irán no obtiene armas nucleares».
«Fue una reunión extremadamente positiva», había dicho antes una fuente cercana a Netanyahu. La reunión fue «positiva y productiva», detalló por su parte la Casa Blanca.
Fue el octavo encuentro entre ambos mandatarios desde que Trump regresó a la Casa Blanca, en enero de 2025.
Sin embargo, la cita a puerta cerrada, que duró alrededor de hora y media y tras la cual los participantes no tuvieron ningún intercambio con la prensa, no disipa la impresión de discrepancias entre ellos.
Sus relaciones tocaron fondo en abril durante las negociaciones de un alto al fuego con Teherán, cuando Trump cargó con insultos contra Netanyahu y lo describió como un «tipo muy difícil».
Netanyahu se esforzó en las últimas semanas en restar importancia a esas diferencias calificándolas de «desacuerdos tácticos».
La visita de Netanyahu tiene lugar en un «momento crítico para Oriente Medio», mientras Irán sigue «priorizando el terrorismo antes que las negociaciones» y bloqueando el estrecho de Ormuz, vía marítima estratégica, declaró más temprano el martes Danny Danon, embajador de Israel ante las Naciones Unidas.
Washington afirma ahora querer dar una nueva oportunidad a la diplomacia tras dos semanas de bombardeos sin precedentes desde la tregua de abril. Israel no participó en esta última ronda de ataques.
Según Yonatan Freeman, experto en relaciones internacionales en la Universidad Hebrea de Jerusalén, el objetivo de ambos era disipar las especulaciones sobre un enfriamiento de las relaciones.
Trump afronta unas difíciles elecciones legislativas el 3 de noviembre, y Netanyahu elecciones generales el 27 de octubre.
«La principal cuestión es mostrar al mundo entero, a Irán, pero también al Líbano y a otros países en particular, que no hay ruptura ni desacuerdo mayor entre Estados Unidos e Israel», declaró este experto a la AFP.
Los últimos sondeos sitúan a Netanyahu en dificultades, ya que una parte de la opinión pública le reprocha el fracaso de su gobierno en impedir el ataque de Hamás del 7 de octubre de 2023, que desencadenó la guerra en Gaza.
Trump separa oficialmente la ofensiva contra Irán de la situación en Líbano, donde Israel mantiene su propio pulso con Hezbollah, el movimiento aliado de Teherán.
Washington quiere sin embargo pacificar toda la región, donde las dificultades para transportar crudo y gas están impactando en la inflación en Estados Unidos.
Al ser interrogado el martes sobre informaciones según las cuales Irán está fortificando la montaña Kolang, donde podría tener importantes instalaciones nucleares, Trump respondió: «No necesito que Bibi (el apodo de Netanyahu) me diga eso. Bibi me dice eso porque quiere que siga implicado».
«Sé exactamente lo que está pasando en Kolang, no es un gran problema. Si no llegamos a un acuerdo, la destruiremos muy fácilmente», dijo en el canal Fox News antes del encuentro.
Otro de los puntos importantes entre ambos países es la situación en la Franja de Gaza. Varios medios israelíes, citando fuentes políticas, han informado de que el gabinete de seguridad había aprobado el marco jurídico que permite el despliegue de una fuerza internacional de estabilización (ISF) en Gaza, una decisión presentada como un gesto hacia Washington.
Esta fuerza internacional, que se inscribe en el marco del «Consejo de Paz» impulsado por Donald Trump, constituye uno de los componentes del dispositivo estadounidense previsto para la posguerra en Gaza, devastada tras dos años de guerra.
INTERNACIONAL
Iran inmates sew lips shut in mass hunger strike at notorious US-sanctioned jail: report
Iran ramps up repression of political dissidents, executions surge
Fox News correspondent Greg Palkot reports that Iran’s repression of its people has worsened, with nearly 50 executions in the past three months and 6,000 arbitrary detentions. Hadi Ghaemi, Director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, describes the regime’s actions as unchecked, making normal life impossible for dissidents.
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More than 1,000 inmates death-row inmates held in a unit of Iran’s Ghezel Hesar Prison have entered a third week of a mass hunger strike to protest regime executions, with some prisoners sewing their lips shut in protest, according to reports.
The escalating demonstration at the U.S.-sanctioned Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj near Tehran, also highlights growing international concern over the Islamic Republic’s reliance on capital punishment, particularly for drug-related offenses.
According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the hunger strike started on July 13, after six inmates were transferred to solitary confinement ahead of possible executions. Other Iranian human rights groups said the prisoners had been convicted of drug-related offenses.
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State executions go up under Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. 4/22/25 (Nooses: Photo by Loredana Sangiuliano/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images, President of Iran: Photo by Iranian Presidency/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Reports also indicate that the striking prisoners have been chanting «No to Execution» and taking extreme measures, including sewing their lips shut.
One media outlet cited a video that appeared to show an inmate speaking to the camera and saying he was going to sew his lips shut because, six days into the hunger strike, no prison official had responded to the protest.
The Guardian reported that the video also appears to show an unseen prisoner using a needle and thread to stitch the man’s lips shut.
In a statement released on July 27, the exiled Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), reported that prisoners in Unit 2 of Ghezel Hesar Prison were in «deteriorating physical condition» because of the hunger strike.
«Although 15 days have passed since the start of this hunger strike, the henchmen of the regime’s judiciary have given no response to the striking prisoners. Despite the prisoners’ deteriorating physical condition and urgent need for medical attention, prison guards have taken no measures to care for them,» the organization said.
FREED AMERICAN REVEALS BRUTAL IRAN PRISON ORDEAL, WARNS HOSTAGES FACE GREATER DANGER
The NCRI also said the striking prisoners urged the public, human rights organizations and international bodies to take action to halt the executions.
This marks the second major demonstration at the facility in recent months.
A similar protest occurred at Ghezel Hesar Prison in October 2025, when more than 1,500 inmates staged a six-day hunger strike, according to reports.
That demonstration ended after senior judicial and prison officials made a visit to the facility and promised to temporarily halt executions and review cases.
However, human rights activists report those promises were never fulfilled, according to Ynet.
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Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State, speaks during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, during the 76th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, Pool)
The State Department had designated and sanctioned Ghezel Hesar Prison in 2024 for gross human rights violations and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners.
«These heinous acts included multiple severe beatings of political prisoners engaged in a peaceful hunger strike to protest the increased wave of executions being carried out at the facility,» then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the time.
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According to Amnesty International, the Islamic Republic of Iran executed at least 2,159 people in 2025.
Iran’s total helped drive the number of executions recorded by Amnesty International to at least 2,707 across 17 countries — the highest figure the organization has recorded since 1981. The total excludes China, where execution data is classified as a state secret and Amnesty believes thousands of executions were carried out.
iran, human rights, human rights united nations
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