American workers just learned how they're being replaced by an underground operation most never knew existed.
The scheme turns out to be far bigger than anyone imagined.
And an investigation exposed this government betrayal destroying American jobs.
The H-1B program was supposed to fill skill gaps
The H-1B visa program allows U.S. companies to temporarily hire foreign workers in specialized fields like technology and engineering when they genuinely can't find qualified Americans.
Congress capped it at 85,000 new visas annually, intending it as a last resort for rare expertise.
But labor-broker cartels figured out how to game the system by importing cheaper foreign workers who can be controlled far more easily than Americans.
Here's the key: H-1B holders depend on their sponsoring company to remain in the United States legally.
Quit or get fired, and you lose your visa.
That gives employers massive leverage to pay below-market wages and demand whatever working conditions they want.
The foreign worker can't negotiate or complain without risking deportation.
For labor brokers, that dependency became a goldmine.
Documents reveal how the cartel actually operates
WorldNetDaily's investigation into Denken Solutions just blew the doors off this racket.
The Irvine, California operation runs a scam where foreign workers get imported before any actual work exists, visa applications get submitted based on fabricated job openings, and cash incentives corrupt the entire hiring process.¹
Public records show Denken and its shell companies — Valiantica, Apeiro Technologies, Global Squirrels — all connect back to founder Rajendra Maddula.²
These aren't competitors.
They're one labor pipeline designed to import workers, control them through visa dependency, and undercut every legitimate American company.
Here's how the con works: bring workers to America first, stick them in company housing with little or no pay, keep them waiting on the bench until a client needs someone, then bill that client top dollar while the worker sees a fraction of it.
Denken's own materials show thousands of visa workers sitting idle in "bench rosters," waiting for assignments.³
If America truly had a tech worker shortage, companies wouldn't need warehouses full of foreign labor collecting dust between projects.
The bench proves the opposite: these cartels created an artificial surplus to destroy American wages.
Denken Solutions reports nearly $178.5 million in annual revenue.⁴
Not bad for a mid-sized staffing firm.
The profit comes from charging clients full American consulting rates while the actual worker — trapped by visa dependency — accepts whatever wage Denken offers.
Multiply that margin across thousands of workers and you've got a criminal enterprise disguised as a temp agency.
Trump launches the most aggressive crackdown in decades
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer launched Project Firewall in September and personally certified at least 175 investigations — making her the first secretary in American history to take direct enforcement action on this scale.⁵
"We are deploying every tool at the department's disposal to root out H-1B visa abuse," Chavez-DeRemer said.⁶
Investigators already uncovered more than $15 million in back wages owed to workers.⁷
Companies were caught paying H-1B holders far below certified rates, benching workers without pay, and filing applications for fake job locations.
President Trump backed the crackdown by slapping a $100,000 fee on new H-1B applications — targeting visa mills that file hundreds of speculative petitions without real positions.⁸
American workers are getting destroyed
Jonathan, a cybersecurity professional with five years of experience, submitted over 200 applications in Seattle after losing his job in November 2024.⁹
Zero offers.
"My career is basically dead in the water because of these problems," Jonathan told the Daily Caller News Foundation.¹⁰
Riley graduated with a software engineering degree in 2021 and watched his Austin company replace Americans with South American workers before opening an office in Colombia.
"That was done to reduce their labor costs," Riley said.¹¹
Computer engineering majors now face 7.5% unemployment — higher than art history majors at 3%.¹²
Between 2022 and 2024, roughly 552,000 tech workers lost their jobs.¹³
During that same bloodbath, H-1B workers in America grew 80%, hitting nearly 660,000 by October 2024.¹⁴
Those numbers tell you everything.
This isn't about filling skill gaps.
It's about replacing expensive Americans with cheap, controllable foreign labor.
The kickback scheme that corrupts hiring from the inside
Denken's referral program openly pays cash bonuses to anyone sending them foreign workers needing sponsorship or companies looking for staffing.¹⁵
Here's where it gets criminal: hiring managers inside U.S. companies can personally profit by steering contracts to Denken instead of choosing vendors based on merit.
Recommend Denken to your employer, collect a referral bonus based on contract revenue.
Then refer friends or family as visa candidates and collect a second payout.
The manager profits twice while Americans never see the jobs.
That's not a marketplace.
That's corruption masquerading as consulting.
What makes these networks nearly impossible to prosecute is fragmentation across shell companies.
Valiantica handles offshore recruiting, Sophlogic manages placements, Apeiro operates as a federal contractor, Global Squirrels processes payroll.¹⁶
Each looks routine individually.
Together they're a labor cartel designed to capture entire sectors of American jobs.
The WorldNetDaily investigation provides the blueprint investigators can use to identify thousands of similar operations still running nationwide.
Trump's Project Firewall represents the most serious attempt in decades to restore the program to its original purpose: filling genuine skill shortages, not replacing qualified Americans with indentured servants.
American workers spent years earning degrees they were told would guarantee careers.
Instead they've been competing against a rigged system that treated their livelihoods as inventory to be bought and sold for profit.
¹ Amanda Bartolotta, "Inside the global visa cartel replacing America's middle class," WorldNetDaily, December 1, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Jason Hopkins, "Betrayed American Workers Expose Dark Underbelly Of H-1B Visa Scheme," Daily Caller News Foundation, December 2, 2025.
⁶ "DOL launches 175 H-1B visa abuse investigations to protect American jobs," Fox News, November 2025.
⁷ Olivia Rondeau and John Binder, "Trump Labor Dept. 'Deploying Every Tool' to End H-1B Visa Abuse," Breitbart News, November 12, 2025.
⁸ "H-1B visa update: Trump admin opens 175 investigations into visa 'abuse,'" Newsweek, November 2025.
⁹ Hopkins, "Betrayed American Workers Expose Dark Underbelly."
¹⁰ Ibid.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² Ibid.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ Ibid.
¹⁵ Bartolotta, "Inside the global visa cartel."
¹⁶ Ibid.
