This fee would be by far the biggest move to restrict high-skilled immigration to date. Some may bend over backwards to convince themselves that this would be some moderate compromise short of ending OPT. In reality, this fee would nuke America's largest and most important program for new high-skilled immigrants. The international student pipeline is how the vast majority of top talent first comes to the United States. Per CSET, 72 percent of immigrant founders of top AI companies first came to the country on student visas. OPT is the primary way through which foreign-born employees at places like Tesla, Intel, NVIDIA, Open AI, DeepMind, Anthropic, etc. enter the US labor market. Without OPT, the rest of the immigration system would become less skilled and lower-paid. More H-1B slots would go to IT outsourcers and staffing companies who use the system for cheap labor in mid-skilled jobs. This effect would grow over time, as this fee would deter international students from coming here in the first place. The costs of such a rule, if sustained, to US innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth would be massive. If you've been on the sidelines waiting for the shoe to drop on high-skilled immigration, this is it.