Report to ICE about abuse of EB1. Reforms are needed similar to OPT
ICE: More than 10,000 potential fraud cases related to student job program - POLITICO
Yesterday, ICE reportedly announced a crackdown on 10,000 OPT fraud cases by identifying suspicious patterns in data, something that is now increasingly possible with AI-assisted analysis. A similar effort should be applied to EB1 categories to prevent abuse and preserve opportunities for the next generation of genuine non-ROW engineers and scientists. I encourage everyone to write to ICE and bring more attention to this issue.
Reforms should focus on three major areas:
- EB1C abuse: Most non-ROW EB1C filings appear to come from WITCH companies and less prestigious Fortune 500 employers. Many beneficiaries do not seem to be true executives or senior managers, and there are widespread allegations of organizational manipulation and fraudulent documentation practices. ICE should identify the top EB1C sponsoring employers, investigate documentation patterns, and conduct stronger site visits and audits. Why are a handful of companies sponsoring thousands of “managers” every year?
- Porting abuse: While some porting cases are genuine, a large portion appears to involve Fortune 500 employees primarily to bypass long green card backlogs. ICE should investigate the timing patterns between EB2 and EB1 porting filings and identify suspicious trends or inconsistencies.
- Rampant profile-building fraud: This is closely tied to porting. Without the incentive to bypass waiting lines, many profile builders would never pursue these activities. ICE should track whether applicants continue demonstrating sustained acclaim after I-140 approval. Many people participate in low-tier hackathons, publish AI-generated or low-quality papers, obtain questionable media coverage, and collect superficial memberships solely for immigration purposes. Once approved, they often stop entirely or even delete evidence.
Genuine candidates usually continue growing their profiles because EB1 approval is a secondary outcome of their actual work, not the sole objective. ICE should analyze patterns involving recommendation letter templates, predatory journals, fake memberships, coordinated hackathons, and suspicious publication networks , especially papers in AI/ML/cybersecurity where all authors are from the same country and repeatedly use the same recommenders.
For people asking “why do you care?” or telling others to “touch grass,” ignoring fraud is how systems deteriorate over time. This is the right moment to shed light on abuse in order to preserve fairness for future generations.
PS: No racism or slurs. Goal of post is to raise awareness about abuse of EB1