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Some locations were locked office suites with no active business operations. Others turned out to be residential homes. In several cases, multiple companies were allegedly registered to the same address despite no evidence any of them actually operated there.
The findings raised immediate questions about whether thousands of foreign nationals had been receiving work authorization through companies that existed only on paper.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons did not mince words when discussing the operation.
“This is not accidental,” Lyons said Tuesday. “This is deliberate, coordinated and criminal.”
According to Lyons, agents encountered numerous situations where people at the listed locations denied knowing anything about the businesses supposedly operating there.
Others reportedly gave conflicting explanations about the companies or their employees.
Even more alarming, investigators identified what Lyons described as “phantom employees” — foreign nationals who obtained legal work authorization through the program despite allegedly never reporting to legitimate jobs.
Because in many cases, there may not have been any legitimate jobs at all.
A Program That Exploded Beyond Its Original Purpose
The Optional Practical Training system originally began as a limited program intended to allow foreign students to gain temporary job experience before returning home.
Critics say that changed dramatically under former President Barack Obama.
The program expanded rapidly over the years, particularly for students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Conservatives have long argued the system effectively became a shadow guest-worker pipeline that bypassed scrutiny faced by other visa programs.
According to ICE officials, the scale of suspected abuse is staggering.
Lyons revealed investigators have already identified more than 10,000 questionable cases connected to just the top 25 employers under review.
And that may only scratch the surface.
“There are thousands more OPT employers” still being examined, officials warned.
The concern from investigators is not merely that paperwork errors occurred. Authorities believe many companies may have intentionally sold employment sponsorships to foreign nationals seeking to remain in the country legally.
In other words, critics argue the business itself became the product.
Instead of hiring qualified graduates for real jobs, some entities allegedly existed solely to provide immigration paperwork that unlocked legal work authorization.
The work authorization was legitimate.
The jobs may not have been.
Conservatives Say Washington Ignored the Warning Signs
The revelations are already becoming a political flashpoint.
Conservative critics argue the fraud flourished because federal agencies expanded the program without building meaningful oversight mechanisms to verify employers or job sites.
For years, immigration hawks warned that weak enforcement created incentives for abuse while politicians in Washington focused on increasing visa access rather than verifying compliance.
Now the Trump administration is framing the crackdown as proof that tougher enforcement works.
Vice President JD Vance praised the investigation publicly and tied it directly to the administration’s broader anti-fraud initiative.
“Another great win for our fraud task force,” Vance posted on X.
He added that the administration “will not tolerate foreign nationals abusing our visa system at the expense of the American people.”
The investigation reportedly ties into a larger Department of Justice inter-agency fraud initiative established earlier this year, one already connected to probes involving billions of taxpayer dollars in suspected abuse schemes nationwide.
“Only the Tip of the Iceberg”
ICE officials made clear the operation is far from over.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” Lyons warned.
Federal authorities say oversight of the OPT system has now been significantly expanded as agents continue tracking companies and foreign nationals linked to suspicious employment records.
For conservatives, the investigation reinforces a familiar argument: government bureaucracies created massive systems with little accountability, while ordinary Americans were told everything was functioning properly.
Now investigators are literally walking into empty buildings searching for companies that allegedly sponsored thousands of foreign workers.
And what they are finding behind those locked doors is igniting a political firestorm Washington may not be able to contain.
