The NAM filed a response brief in the D.C. Circuit in defense of a program that provides hundreds of thousands of skilled workers for manufacturers and other American businesses. To address a shortfall of certain skilled workers in the American economy, the federal government in 1992 established the "optional practical training" (OPT) program. That program and a subsequent extension for STEM students (STEM OPT) allows foreign-born students to continue their educational training by working in the United States for up to three years after completing college or a graduate degree. Without the OPT program and STEM OPT, manufacturers would be unable to fill critical positions requiring specialized training in engineering, math, technology and the sciences. An anti-immigration activist group sought to invalidate the entire OPT program by suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. To help ensure the continued availability of hundreds of thousands of highly skilled workers for manufacturers, the NAM intervened in the case as a defendant. Becoming a defendant allowed the NAM to present the best legal arguments possible in support of the OPT program and STEM OPT. The court granted NAM's motion for intervention in 2019, and on November 30, 2020, the court granted NAM’s request for summary judgment.
The activist group then appealed the ruling to the D.C. Circuit. Happily, in a 2-1 decision issued on October 4, 2022, the D.C. Circuit upheld the validity of the STEM OPT program as a lawful exercise of executive branch authority.