In September 2025, an investigation by The New York Times found migrant workers on ‘J-1’ cultural exchange visas in the United States were subjected to exploitative working conditions by US companies.

The investigation focused on New York, where workers on these visas allegedly experienced a range of labour rights violations, including:

• The abuse of migrant workers at Kurt Weiss Greenhouses on Long Island, including long hours, threats of deportation, ‘filthy’ accommodation, and unsafe conditions leading to injuries and illness. Kurt Weiss Greenhouses allegedly supplies to Costco, Walmart and Home Depot. (Kurt Weiss Greenhouses’ former director said most employees had positive experiences.)
• Sexual harassment impacting migrant workers at a café in Shelter Island called Marie Eiffel.
• Weekend work without overtime pay, threats of deportation, retaliation for raising complaints, and conditions different to those promised for migrant workers at New York apartment leasing company, Aya.
• 12-hour workdays and months of wage theft at media company Skytop Strategies (the company’s founder said the findings were ‘riddled with inaccuracies’).

The New York Times also describes other historical cases of abuse impacting workers on the scheme, including ‘gruelling’ overnight shifts at a Hershey Company packing plant in 2011, 16-hour workdays at the Grand America Hotel resort in Utah in 2016; ‘vile’ conditions at a meat-processing plant (Tur-Pack Foods) and dog food factory in 2019 leading to a lawsuit; and dangerous conditions for Guatemalan workers at a pork production plant, Livingston Enterprises, in 2022.

The New York Times approached the companies that employed the workers; they either denied the allegations, declined to discuss the programme or did not respond.

The New York Times emphasised that the J-1 visa scheme has grown in recent years, and has largely been outsourced to private organisations (‘sponsors’) that charge workers fees to help secure them a job. The New York Times alleges these sponsors have ‘played down, ignored or dismissed…complaints’ by migrant workers on the scheme. For example, the article says sponsor International Arts and Artists ‘did little to help’ a Colombian worker after her employer, Studioteka, allegedly refused to pay her the promised salary, while another worker at Studioteka (hired through a different sponsor, Intrax), allegedly experienced sexual harassment (the chief executive of Studioteka said she had never been told of sexual harassment at the firm, and disputed the allegations of wage theft; Intrax said it follows all regulations).

In January 2026, the Business & Human Rights Centre invited Costco, Walmart and Home Depot to respond to the allegations of abuse at Kurt Weiss Greenhouses. Home Depot's response can be read in full below. Walmart and Costco did not respond.