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2025-07-01 Economy
Walmart staff panic as bosses roll out mass sackings overnight leaving stores understaffed
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Walmart employees are saying they're losing coworkers overnight.

The retailer, America's largest private employer, is complying with a sweeping Supreme Court decision that allowed the Trump administration to revoke work protections for half a million migrant employees.

Walmart staffers are saying the company is responding with quick staffing cuts in stores. They're worried there aren't enough workers.

'Anyone else just lose a bunch of employees to Trump policy?' a Redditor asked in a thread dedicated to Walmart. '[My store] just lost 10 employees who were here on work visa.'

Another claimed their store lost 40 staffers at a 400-worker store, representing 10 percent of the workforce. They said remaining employees are now scrambling to keep stores running.

Some said their store is turning to elderly employees to fill the gap.

'Most of our older floor associates are constantly asking for help,' another added. 'It's not really ideal.'

Retail experts told DailyMail.com that the impact on consumers at affected stores is likely temporary and regional.

'This disruption is real, but it's more of a speed bump than a roadblock for a company that's weathered much worse,' Carol Spieckerman, a global retail expert, said.

'This is just the latest curveball for Walmart — after navigating inflation, potential tariffs, and economic uncertainty, they've become experts at adaptation.

'The impact won't be uniform. States closer to the border will feel this more acutely than stores in the heartland.'

Walmart's reported job cuts come after President Donald Trump abruptly ended a Biden-era parole program.

Biden created the program, called CHNV, in January 2023 that temporarily shielded over 534,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan migrants from deportation until the end of 2025.
In other words, the program ended six months earlier than expected, but provident management would have been forming contingency plans at least a year ago for this and other scenarios. If management really is scrambling badly now, they did a poor job of their primary responsibility.
The program granted work permits. Recipients were legally allowed to take US jobs, and officials notified their employers that the visas needed to renew at the end of this year.

But in late May this year, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's emergency request to quickly remove the Biden-era program, creating widespread uncertainty for employees and their employers.

For employees, the fallout is already visible inside Walmart stores. The company did not respond to multiple comment requests from DailyMail.com.

Bloomberg previously reported that the company has instructed store managers — particularly in Florida and Texas — to begin identifying employees whose work authorizations may have been rapidly revoked.

Internal documents reviewed by the outlet indicate that affected staff must reverify their work eligibility immediately.

The legal situation is complex and extremely high-risk for large employers, according to Loren Locke, an immigration attorney in Georgia.

'Employers like Walmart have no choice but to stop employing workers who lack US work authorization,' she told DailyMail.com.

'But it is tricky to comply when they have a large number of current employees whose work permits are getting cancelled prematurely.'

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not directly notified employers about which workers are losing their status.

Instead, a March federal filing by Trump officials said employers carried 'constructive knowledge' if they continued to employ the migrants using the Biden-era program.

According to Locke, that shifted legal responsibility on employers like Walmart. The companies can be held legally accountable for keeping workers on staff that relied on the visa program.

But corporate I-9 management systems are often not designed to flag sudden early terminations. The Trump administration's decision to cancel the program doesn't allow companies to easily search which CHNV visas are now cancelled.

Complicating matters further, the Biden-era permit falls under the same immigration employment category as other immigration work programs.

These problems make it nearly impossible for most employers to separate CHNV applicants from staffers on still-in-place visa programs.

For many retailers, the paperwork issue has created a thorny situation that could put them in trouble with the Trump administration if they keep employees.

But if they do comply with the Trump administration's orders, asking employees about their visa status could also leave companies susceptible to discrimination lawsuits.

Locke called the sudden shift an 'immediate compliance crisis for retailers.'

Walmart is not the only company that appears to be taking the proactive step of reviewing work authorization ahead of schedule, based on the government's broader warning.

Disney also reportedly started laying off staff at its Florida parks that relied on the visa program.

But according to Jamie E. Wright, a trial attorney in Los Angeles, the issue exposes how companies need to update their employee tracking systems.

The outdated tech, in her estimation, has left visa-holding employees as collateral damage in the rapidly-shifting visa landscape.

'We're not talking about people trying to bend the rules. These are employees who’ve done everything right,' she said.

'What Walmart and other employers really need is not a blanket policy, but a smarter system — one that helps track renewals, supports workers through the process, and leads with respect. That’s not only the decent thing to do. It’s also better business.'
Posted by Skidmark 2025-07-01 00:00|| || Front Page|| ||Comments [188 views ]  Top
 File under: Migrants/Illegal Immigrants 

#1 
In other words, the program ended six months earlier than expected, but provident management would have been forming contingency plans at least a year ago for this and other scenarios. If management really is scrambling badly now, they did a poor job of their primary responsibility.


TW,

From what I've seen up close of individual store management at Walmart, they're barely able to keep things moving on a daily basis, much less six months into the future. Not to mention that staffing issues come almost entirely straight from corporate - I don't know anyone who doesn't have a story about only one or two or NO cash registers open during the busiest times of the day, and good luck trying to find anyone who knows what they're doing the rest of the time.

Mike
Posted by MikeKozlowski 2025-07-01 06:45||   2025-07-01 06:45|| Front Page || Comments   Top

#2 
At the 8 stores here in the GA/SC Central Savannah River Area (CSRA).

Wally World has gotten so understaffed they can't open all Self Checkout registers, and usually only 2 or 3 out of the 14+ available cashier run lanes are open.

Even now, general grocery prices are being beat by many competitors.

The WW Private label food items are seeing YouTube videos and Blog reviews pointing out Post-Covid 1/4 to 1/3 reduced sizes, 25% to 50+% price increases and ingredient content changes.

BTW: Anyone still have a 24/7 location store?

Posted by NN2N1 2025-07-01 07:07||   2025-07-01 07:07|| Front Page || Comments   Top

#3 We still do have 24/7 stores in the area, but you're talking 40-50 minutes away.

Standard travel times for Cali, Texas or Florida. Not as common around here, though.
Posted by Mullah Richard  2025-07-01 08:54||   2025-07-01 08:54|| Front Page || Comments   Top

#4 This is directed by corporate. Way back when I worked for Walmart in college and at the time, 2 people per department, all registers open, etc. They made plenty of money. Then corporate decided providing customer service cost too much and started the current decline and viola, we only buy certain things there, cat litter and cat food mostly.
Posted by Silentbrick 2025-07-01 10:44||   2025-07-01 10:44|| Front Page || Comments   Top

#5 ... we only buy certain things there, cat litter and cat food mostly.

Ah, yes, the over 35, single, female market.
Posted by Procopius2k 2025-07-01 10:56||   2025-07-01 10:56|| Front Page || Comments   Top

#6 Well, ... Granny likes her cat food spread on toast.
Posted by Skidmark 2025-07-01 12:44||   2025-07-01 12:44|| Front Page || Comments   Top

#7 Oh no! Walmart might have to hire American citizens instead of "immigrants"! But then at least when I ask one of their employees a question I can get an answer other than "No hablo."
Posted by Abu Uluque 2025-07-01 13:58||   2025-07-01 13:58|| Front Page || Comments   Top

#8 Ah, yes, the over 35, single, female market.

Ummm, not that I've noticed. We live in Texas and we mostly shop at HEB for groceries. Most everything else comes from Home Depot, Sam's, Costco, etc. And I'm fairly certain my wife would have noticed if I was female:p
Posted by Silentbrick 2025-07-01 13:58||   2025-07-01 13:58|| Front Page || Comments   Top

17:17 Beavis
16:39 NN2N1
16:34 trailing wife
16:28 NN2N1
15:05 Grom the Affective
14:36 mossomo
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14:34 Besoeker
14:14 Elmuger Gonque4455
14:06 Abu Uluque
13:58 Silentbrick
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13:49 Abu Uluque
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13:40 Difar Dave
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12:53 Grom the Affective









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