Trump administration official alleges 'human trafficking' amid first-of-its-kind H-1B fraud investigation
After months of calls for our leaders to investigate and put an end to legal immigration abuses, the Trump administration has begun to play offense.
On Wednesday, Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito appeared on Fox Business to announce a major development in the Department of Labor's fraud investigations.
'As the Inspector General, my top priorities are exposing fraud, protecting American workers, and putting criminals in cuffs.'
The focus, according to the inspector general, is on the H-1B visa program and PERM, otherwise known as the Program Electronic Review Management system. He said these investigations "without a doubt" have yielded evidence of fraud — and "human trafficking."
In the interview, D'Esposito said the Department of Labor will take "what we believe is probably the most aggressive action against foreign labor fraud by an inspector general in this administration."
He added that the agency has "already started to issue dozens of subpoenas. We are going to make sure that we track down every lead." He mentioned that there are "whistleblowers talking about some of the biggest companies, like Cognizant, who have been ... in chatter of issues with PERM and H-1B visas."
While the investigation does not in itself indicate any form of wrongdoing, according to Department of Labor data from the second quarter of 2026, it is true that Cognizant draws heavily from the H-1B program.
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In this three-month data set alone, Cognizant successfully certified approximately 3,440 H-1B visas, according to government data.
A similar review of PERM data from 2025 revealed that the top 10 companies that use this program are:
- Microsoft Corporation;
- FPL Food LLC;
- Consolidated Catfish Producers LLC;
- South Georgia Pecan Company;
- JCG Foods of Georgia LLC;
- Akash Management LLC;
- Oracle America Inc.;
- Merit Logistics;
- Wal-Mart Associates Inc.; and
- Salesforce Inc.
The PERM program had roughly 80,700 certified applications in 2025. However, it is important to note that this program is not itself a visa issuance program. Rather, it is a preliminary step toward approval in certain visa categories.
"My team, in conjunction with President Trump and Vice President Vance's Fraud Task Force, has worked relentlessly to uncover fraud, safeguard taxpayer dollars, and hold bad actors accountable. For far too long, fraudsters believed they could game the U.S. employment-based visa system and get away with it. They were wrong," D'Esposito said in a Tuesday press release.
"This isn't just paperwork fraud — it's the exploitation of vulnerable workers, forced labor, the displacement of American workers, and abusive human trafficking. As the Inspector General, my top priorities are exposing fraud, protecting American workers, and putting criminals in cuffs."
D'Esposito added that his team will be working closely with President Trump and Vice President Vance's Fraud Task Force "to exhaust every lead."
Blaze News reached out to Cognizant as well as the Office of the Inspector General but did not immediately receive a response.
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Most new jobs are going to women — and 1 in 3 men have given up
President Donald Trump celebrated the jobs report published on Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which shows that American employers added jobs for the third consecutive month.
The report, which Trump called "great," says the U.S. economy added 172,000 jobs last month; the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3%; the number of unemployed people, 7.3 million, "changed little over the month"; and the labor force participation rate held at 61.8%.
'Bodes ill for the country.'
Total employment growth for the months of March and April were revised up by 29,000 and 64,000, respectively.
"This is a labor market that is stronger than it was last year and is looking pretty darn solid, despite high energy prices and higher inflation generally," Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC, told CNBC. "There's no indication that the labor market needs support."
While the labor market is purportedly healthy, there are a pair of potentially destabilizing trends under way behind the scenes: the overwhelming majority of new payroll jobs are going to women, and a staggering number of men have given up on finding a job.
Jason Riley, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, recently highlighted that "the share of American men in the labor force has dipped to record lows." Labor Department data revealed last month that one in three men were neither working nor looking for a job.
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The male labor-force participation rate has declined significantly in recent years, to say nothing of the precipitous decline that has taken place over the past century. The male LFP rate was 87% in 1948, 75% in 2000, and — according to the latest jobs report — 67.2% in May.
"The premature absence of millions of able-bodied men from our workforce, combined with the continuing retirement of the Baby Boomers and significant reductions in immigration, bodes ill for the country," wrote Riley.
While there are multiple factors at play — Baby Boomers are, for instance, retiring en masse; young men are dropping off to study; there is diminished demand for non-college male labor; and prime-age men are falling to the wayside because of illness and disabilities — the Washington Post recently pointed out that:
the labor market has weakened since early 2025, with most job opportunities concentrated in areas typically dominated by women, including health care and private education. At the same time, several male-dominated industries, including manufacturing, transportation, and mining have shed jobs, leaving a mismatch between typical skill sets and job opportunities for men.
It's evidently a new day for female labor.
Whereas in the mid-1970s, women held roughly 40% of jobs in the U.S. — not including agricultural work or self-employment — they now hold the majority of jobs in the country.
NPR's "Morning Edition" reported that of the roughly 369,000 jobs created between the beginning of Trump's second term and April, 348,000 jobs went to women and 21,000 jobs went to men. In other words, 94% of the jobs went to women and only 6% to men.
Courtney Parella, a spokeswoman for the Labor Department, stressed to "Morning Edition" that raw job counts provided a "misleading snapshot" of the labor market, adding that "both men and women are benefiting from a strong economy."
Women have picked up the supermajority of net new payroll jobs in part because of the growth in female-dominated sectors, namely health care — where women hold roughly 80% of the jobs — and social assistance.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!Feds allege this Big Tech company violated federal law with bizarre scheme to avoid hiring US citizens
An American tech company is being sued by the Department of Justice for allegedly discriminating against U.S. workers.
Instead of hiring Americans, the company allegedly favored hiring workers with temporary visas, going to bizarre lengths to prevent U.S. workers from being able to properly apply for its vacant jobs.
'Employers cannot use the PERM sponsorship process as a back door for discriminating against US workers.'
Cloudera is a software company based in Santa Clara, California, that predominantly stores data and was started in 2008 by former engineers from Google, Yahoo, and Facebook.
In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the DOJ said the company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act by intentionally discriminating against Americans.
The federal lawsuit said the company "upended its normal hiring process and did exactly what the law prohibits. ... Cloudera did not consider the applications some U.S. worker candidates submitted because the company earmarked certain jobs for workers on temporary employment visas."
Cloudera was accused of posting openings for at least seven jobs — paying between $180,000 and $294,000 per year — that asked U.S. applicants to submit applications to a dedicated email address. However, the address did not accept messages from external email accounts, and applicants simply received an error message in response.
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Therefore Cloudera did not have any record of a person applying for particular roles, the DOJ stated.
The alleged end result was Cloudera attempting to fill the roles with temporary foreign workers through the permanent labor certification process, while "repeatedly" telling the Department of Labor that it couldn't find any qualified American workers.
"Employers cannot use the PERM sponsorship process as a back door for discriminating against U.S. workers," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon. "The Division will not hesitate to sue companies who intentionally deter U.S. workers from applying to American jobs."
The DOJ said an American worker alleged discrimination after attempting to apply to Cloudera via the designated email address but "received a bounce-back notification."
Cloudera spokeswoman Hannah Fairbanks said in a statement to Blaze News that the company is "proud to hire American workers."
"We do not discriminate against U.S. workers — or anyone — on the basis of citizenship status. We take the DOJ’s allegations seriously, and from the start, we have cooperated fully with the DOJ’s investigation, which stems from a recruiting email account that was simply not working as intended," she continued.
"We believe the government's claims misunderstand both our hiring processes and our intent, and we will address the matter through the appropriate legal channels. Cloudera is committed to fair, lawful, and open recruitment practices, and we will continue to cooperate with the DOJ as we work to resolve this matter. Because this is now pending litigation, we cannot comment further at this time."
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Cloudera is charged with one count of discrimination in hiring: deterring U.S. workers; one count of discrimination in hiring: failing to consider U.S. workers; and one count of discrimination in hiring: failing to hire U.S. workers.
Cloudera had a reported revenue of $869.3 million for fiscal year 2021 and was sold that October in an all-cash deal for approximately $5.3 billion.
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Come along with Sara Gonzales as she busts ANOTHER alleged H-1B visa scam in Texas
BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is back again with yet another case of suspected H-1B fraud in the state of Texas.
This investigation took Sara to the city of Allen to a day care called “Allen Infant Care Center” and its neighboring autism behavioral therapy clinic, “DFW ABA Center” — both of which are owned by Golden Qi Holdings LLC.
When Sara visited these two locations, she witnessed the same thing she’s been seeing in these investigations: nothing — no people, no operations, no anything but empty facilities.
And yet according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, collectively these two businesses have sponsored at least 37 H-1B workers and filed more than 50 labor condition applications since their openings.
“The thing that is so curious about this one, when you go digging in the data and the LCAs, is that you wouldn't think that a day-care center would need market research analysts or supply chain analysts,” says Sara, “and yet this company actually told the United States government that they needed foreign workers to fill those jobs.”
On this episode of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,” Sara brings her audience along as she busts what appears to be another potential H-1B scam in Texas.
During her investigation, Sara happened to run into a whistleblower, who gave her the insider scoop on the alleged sham companies.
The whistleblower claims a man named Yao is behind a pay-to-play visa scheme, allegedly selling visas to foreigners.
“I know that he has sponsored people with visas, and then he gets them to work for him for next to nothing,” the whistleblower said, noting that these recipients are from “families of means” and are able to pay $20,000 for their visas.
“Someone's paying their rent, paying their car payments and all of that stuff, because when they’re working here, they're not earning enough to make rent. So the arrangement is made in China. … Once they get here, he either puts them to work for cheap, or they set about trying to find work where someone will genuinely sponsor them,” the whistleblower continued, adding that most of these people are young, highly educated women here on student visas.
The whistleblower also told Sara that Mr. Yao’s father is “high up in the [Chinese] government.”
“What turned me was seeing how much — I’m talking hundreds of thousands of dollars — for PPP loans. … Then there was another handout from Texas Workforce Commission for child care centers,” the whistleblower continues.
But despite these substantial government assistance programs, Mr. Yao, argues the whistleblower, has used “none of it” on anything related to the day care or autism center.
Sara then did what she always does: confront the alleged culprit.
In the next part of the video, she speaks with Mr. Yao, who is driving a metallic BMW sports car, and asks him to explain his visa sponsorships and share his public access files.
After an unsuccessful back-and-forth, Mr. Yao failed to answer any questions and promised his attorney would call.
Afterward, Sara did some more digging and found even more suspicious information.
“They had PPP loans in both the first and second round of the loans given and forgiven upwards of $100,000. They had a 2022 bankruptcy filing. On top of that, a lot of their employees are listed elsewhere, including Los Angeles, California,” she says. “I'm not sure what someone living in L.A. could actually do for a day-care center, but I'd like to find out.”
“Interestingly enough, there was one LCA that was filed that, I guess, would fit the vibe of this place for a kindergarten teacher, but then the obvious question becomes: Why would you need to import a foreign kindergarten teacher? You can't find any here?” she asks.
Sara vows to send all of the information she has gathered on Mr. Yao and his businesses to her contacts at the USCIS and the Department of Labor.
“We’re going to get you,” she warned Mr. Yao as he drove away.
To see the footage of Sara’s reporting, watch the video above.
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Sara Gonzales confronts owner of alleged H-1B visa & autism center scam — whistleblower tells all
Back in January, BlazeTV's Sara Gonzales released a bombshell report on an investigation into H-1B scams in Texas.
On Tuesday, Gonzales released another video of her investigation into an alleged H-1B farm posing as a day care and autism center — despite appearing to be non-operational when she visited.
'If you are not leave, I will call the police!'
And her investigation took some unexpected turns after she stumbled upon a whistleblower who was able to blow the lid off the whole operation and confronted the owner outside the buildings.
Gonzales started the video outside Allen Infant Care Center, which used to be called Golden Acorn Academy, according to her investigation. The day cares, Gonzales explained, are owned by a holdings company called Golden Qi Holdings LLC, which is also allegedly affiliated with DFW ABA Center, reportedly an autism behavioral therapy center.
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She showed that the complex was almost entirely empty and, notably, apparently devoid of children. The playground appeared to require maintenance and to be overtaken with tall grass and weeds.
Gonzales alleged that, on top of having an associated day care and autism center, they have sponsored "37 H-1Bs" and "they have filled out 55 Labor Condition Applications," citing USCIS data.
"The thing that is so curious about this [case] when you go digging in the data and the LCAs is that you wouldn't think that a day care center would need, you know, 'market research analysts' or 'supply chain analysts,'" Gonzales remarked.
"And yet, this company actually told the United States government that they needed foreign workers to fill those jobs," she further alleged.
While this investigation may have looked like it would take a normal course at the outset, Gonzales ran into a whistleblower at the premises who claimed to be familiar with the operation and who explained "just how bad this one gets."
The whistleblower alleged that the H-1B visa workers do not work on-site and that the immigration enforcement officials "know all about his H-1B visas," claiming that the owner has been investigated three or four times in the last three years.
She also alleged that the owner sells visas and then underpays the holders of those visas when they get to the United States. She described the company as a "foothold" in an immigration scheme.
Gonzales also confronted a man who appeared to be the owner of the companies she was investigating.
The man spoke with her in broken English, attempting to get her to simply talk to his lawyers on the phone instead. However, Gonzales kept pushing him to explain his alleged "pay-to-play" visa operation.
After some questioning, the man retreated to what Gonzales described as a "metallic rose gold BMW" with butterfly doors.
"Hey, is your dad a member of the CCP?" Gonzales asked as he slammed the door of his car.
The man drove down the road, turned around, then yelled out the window of his BMW, "If you are not leave, I will call the police!"
"I'll call the police on you for scamming my system!" Gonzales shouted after him as he sped away.
After the investigation on-site, Gonzales said that she and her team still have a lot of questions and will be referring their findings to USCIS and the Department of Labor.
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'As long as I'm governor ...': Abbott's resurfaced message to Indian community faces renewed scrutiny online
As more people become aware of the way the H-1B visa program is transforming Texas, many are turning to see what their leaders have to say about it.
Unfortunately, in the case of Texas, the answer is not what Americans might expect from a red state.
'We will continue to celebrate Diwali here in the great state of Texas.'
In a resurfaced video clip, Governor Greg Abbott (R) can be heard giving a message to the "Indian community," apparently around the time of Diwali.
"As long as I'm governor of this great state, Texas will be a land for the Indian community," Abbott says in the clip.
"We will continue to celebrate Diwali here in the great state of Texas. Happy Diwali, everybody!"
The clip, which went viral on Monday, appears to originally be from a November 3, 2024, Diwali celebration at the governor's mansion.
A video of his remarks was uploaded on TikTok two days after the event, on November 5, 2024.
Diwali is a major Hindu holiday, celebrated in the lunar months of Ashvina and Karttika, that marks the victory of light over darkness, according to Britannica. A notable feature of this pagan holiday is the "row of lights" that is associated with the celebrations.
Abbott's office has previously denied to Blaze News any involvement in facilitating the H-1B program in Texas, noting that it is a federal program. His office has also touted the governor's pause of H-1B visas at state-sponsored institutions.
A Blaze News analysis of Department of Labor data from the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 found that Texas companies sponsored and certified over 11,200 H-1B visa applications, second only to California, which brought in over 13,700 H-1B visas, according to available data.
Blaze News reached out to Abbott's office for comment about the resurfaced video but did not receive a response.
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