The United States is facing a storm of controversy over the H-1B visa program, following explosive revelations of a jobs-for-kickbacks scandal at Walmart and a renewed government crackdown on hiring practices that critics say disadvantage American workers. The latest developments have drawn the attention of top federal officials, ignited fierce debate about the future of skilled immigration, and raised questions about corporate ethics in the country’s largest companies.
On August 25, 2025, Harmeet Dhillon, the nation’s Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, responded to mounting public pressure on social media by acknowledging concerns over the alleged corruption within the H-1B visa system. Dhillon, who was appointed to her post by President Donald Trump shortly after his election in December 2024, urged Americans to report any improper hiring of H-1B workers, stating, "Send us your leads." According to Breitbart News, Dhillon called the reports of a top Walmart executive allegedly selling hundreds of jobs to a subcontractor "deeply concerning."
The scandal at Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, came to light after the company abruptly fired a top Indian-born executive who had allegedly orchestrated the sale of approximately 1,200 technology jobs to an Indian-run subcontractor, Caspex, in exchange for substantial financial kickbacks. The fallout was swift: over a single weekend in August, 1,200 technology contractors found themselves locked out of Walmart systems, their badges deactivated and projects suspended, according to CTOL Digital Solutions.
A Walmart spokesperson told Breitbart News, "Acting with Integrity is a core Walmart value that we hold every associate to, in every interaction. Earlier this month, following an investigation, Walmart terminated one vendor and a small number of U.S.-based associates." The company’s abrupt action followed an internal probe that revealed daily payments starting from $30,000 flowing from contracting agencies seeking preferential treatment within Walmart’s vast technology ecosystem. Sources familiar with the investigation described a layered network of subcontractors, often managed by Indian executives, that enabled the kickback scheme to flourish behind a veil of complexity.
The intricate system of vendor chains—primes subcontracting to secondaries, then tertiaries—created opacity that, as one industry analyst noted, made it "impossible to track where influence ends and legitimate business begins." The scandal was further exposed when American Walmart executives noticed that famed Indian cricketer Kapil Dev had been brought to a Walmart event in June 2025 by Caspex, which had hired him to its advisory board. The lavish event, attended by wealthy Indian employees, triggered suspicions about the sources of the company’s deep pockets and led to the internal investigation that ultimately uncovered the kickback operation.
Caspex, a California-based subcontractor with three sites in India, is a heavy user of H-1B workers. Its website lists few details about its management, but nearly all LinkedIn posts about the company are from individuals with Indian names. Caspex did not respond to requests for comment from Breitbart News. Social media platforms frequented by tech workers, such as Blind.com, quickly buzzed with reports that Caspex had been "selling [work] visas to candidates from India" and that Walmart’s tech workforce was overwhelmingly Indian. "Sometimes I had feeling that I’m the only one in the entire office that is not from India," one U.S. citizen wrote.
The role of Indian workers in the U.S. tech sector is bolstered by India’s government, which actively encourages U.S.-based Indian managers to invest back home. The H-1B visa program, capped at 85,000 new visas annually, allows U.S. companies to hire skilled foreign workers, primarily from India, in technology and engineering fields. Indian workers account for over 70 percent of H-1B approvals each year, a figure driven by both a large skilled workforce and significant visa backlogs.
The Walmart scandal has fueled criticism of the H-1B program, with opponents arguing that it enables outsourcing firms to depress wages and displace American talent. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was blunt in a late August interview with Fox News, calling the current H-1B system "a scam" and pledging to help change it. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis echoed these sentiments, describing the program as a "cottage industry" that undermines American workers.
The Department of Homeland Security has proposed replacing the current lottery system for H-1B visas with a "weighted selection process," aiming to address concerns about fairness and transparency. Meanwhile, the Trump administration announced new plans on August 27, 2025, to restrict international student visas by imposing a four-year cap, a move that could have significant consequences for the more than 330,000 Indian students who arrived in the U.S. in 2024 alone.
The controversy extends beyond Walmart. Across Fortune 500 companies, American graduates are increasingly being passed over for white-collar jobs in favor of foreign workers delivered through the H-1B program and the larger Optional Practical Training (OPT) permits for international graduates. In 2024, President Joe Biden’s administration provided work permits to 400,000 foreign graduates and admitted roughly 120,000 new H-1B workers, contributing to an estimated 1.5 million foreign contract workers in U.S. white-collar jobs.
This influx, critics say, is undermining American-style professionalism, corporate innovation, and even national security. Kevin Lynn, founder of U.S. Tech Workers, told Breitbart News, "For corporations that are not thinking long term, they’re being led down the road to mediocrity and diminishing market share, all of them." Lynn argued that the focus on short-term profits at the expense of American talent is ultimately "toxic for shareholders."
At the same time, new challenges are emerging. An August 2025 study by Stanford University researchers found that artificial intelligence software is eliminating many career-starting tech jobs for Americans, compounding the difficulties faced by domestic graduates in a rapidly changing labor market.
President Trump, for his part, has advocated for a shift toward high-tech productivity and automation as an alternative to reliance on foreign labor. "We’re going to need robots… to make our economy run because we do not have enough people," he told Breitbart News. "We’ll probably add to [the existing workforce] through robotically — it’s going to be robotically… It’s going to be big. Then, somebody is going to have to make the robots. The whole thing, it feeds on itself… we’re going to streamline things. We need efficiency."
As the Department of Justice, led by Dhillon, intensifies its investigations—having already taken action against some employers—the future of the H-1B program and America’s approach to skilled immigration hang in the balance. With public scrutiny mounting and policymakers on both sides of the aisle calling for reform, the coming months are likely to see even greater debate over how best to balance the nation’s economic needs, its commitment to fairness, and the aspirations of both American and immigrant workers.
For now, the Walmart scandal serves as a stark reminder of the complexities and risks inherent in globalized hiring—and the urgent need for transparency and accountability at every level of the corporate ladder.
