Three Nevada-based employees of Vivint, one of the largest home security companies in the country, have accused the company of labor trafficking through a lawsuit, saying that they were forced to relocate, denied fair wages and repeatedly threatened with deportation.

The ongoing case was filed in Clark County District Court in September on behalf of Mexican national Christian Giles-Gomez, who said that he was recruited as a door-to-door sales representative under false pretenses by a Vivint employee. 

The complaint says Giles-Gomez was initially promised an hourly wage, overtime pay and affordable housing through a federal H-2B temporary foreign worker program, but that the company falsified information about employment terms to secure visas and fabricated "debts" to keep foreign employees in a state of dependency.

Shortly after confronting his supervisor about lack of proper compensation, Giles-Gomez was denied assignments and threatened with loss of housing and deportation, according to the complaint. In July 2025, he was terminated and evicted from employer-controlled housing and left essentially homeless. 

He was forced to carry his belongings on foot, eventually collapsing from exhaustion and dehydration, the suit adds. 

He ultimately returned to Mexico with help from a third party.

In February, attorneys for Giles-Gomez moved to add two other plaintiffs — Julio Alvarez and Zavale Virgo — to the suit, saying they were recruited to work for Vivint through the same visa program. Both were also later terminated after they allegedly failed to meet sales quotas set by the company and left with minimal resources to help return to their home countries.

Giles-Gomez, Alvarez and Virgo are seeking relief for lost wages, out-of-pocket losses and "physical pain, suffering, humiliation," among several other complaints. Travelodge and Pacifica Henderson Suites, where the plaintiffs were allegedly housed, are also listed as defendants. 

Travelodge and Pacifica Henderson Suites joined a motion to dismiss the case from Breit Henderson Property Owner LLC, another defendant that housed Giles-Gomez. The motion said that his complaint lacked "sufficient factual allegations" in their involvement in the "human trafficking" claim.

Vivint has yet to file a response. Vivint's parent company NRG Energy, which is also a defendant, said in a statement that it does not comment on litigation but are "confident that our employees are treated fairly. We look forward to presenting a vigorous defense." 

According to the trade magazine SDM Mag, Vivint had among the highest number of residential subscribers of any home security organization in 2020. The Utah-based company is a separate entity from Vivint Solar, although the two have "a strategic partnership" and are owned by the same private equity firm. 

What is an H-2B visa? 

Vivint has been a longtime sponsor of temporary worker visas. 

On its website, the company advertises its H-2B visa program as "a ticket for a new life" and says it's an opportunity to "unlock a life-changing income," touting that employees can make up to $40,000 per month. In 2023, a subsidiary of the company, Vivint Tucson, had more than 320 H-2B visas approved in more than five states, according to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services data. 

The program allows workers to stay in the U.S. for up to three years to complete non-agricultural temporary work, although most stay for a shorter period of time. In 2024, nearly 170,000 workers participated in the H-2B program nationwide.

If terminated, foreign nationals authorized to work in the U.S. are generally granted a 60-day grace period to adjust their status or find a new sponsor before becoming deportable. 

The suit against Vivint provides a snapshot of broader challenges with work visa programs, especially as President Donald Trump pushes to expand some programs in the midst of his crackdown on immigration. In January 2026, the Trump administration moved to double the number of H-2B visas: Many American businesses insist that they need seasonal foreign workers to stay afloat, especially as deportations ramp up.

Temporary work visa programs, especially the H-2B and the H-2A visa for temporary agricultural workers, have been seen as a breeding ground for labor violations by some policy experts and labor advocates. The current structure of the program does not prevent employers with track records of labor or and wage and hour violations from hiring through the H-2B program. 

In the past few years, Vivint has faced multiple lawsuits regarding racial harassment, including claims that a supervisor repeatedly used the "n-word." In 2023, the company also settled a class action lawsuit for failing to properly compensate workers.

Daniel Costa, the director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, said that a big issue with the H-2B visa program is that workers fear retaliation for complaining about work conditions. He added that employers are required to pay for the transportation of their H-2B visa workers in and out of the country.  

"They're very afraid to complain because you know if the employer gets wind of this, they could just fire them, which means they become deportable," Costa said. 

He also pointed out that a big issue with the H-2B visa program is lack of oversight over foreign recruiters. Costa said that recruiters often charge illegal fees to workers, making them vulnerable, and that workers often may not get the jobs or wages they were promised.

Pressure tactics

The plaintiffs in the suit also alleged a high-pressure corporate culture at Vivint. Upon touching down in Las Vegas, Giles-Gomez was immediately sent into the field to begin working, not given time to shower or even check into housing, the suit alleges.

A few months later, he was relocated to Elko alongside other H-2B workers to sell home security systems there. The plaintiffs said they were forced to pay inflated rent, despite previously being promised free or affordable housing, and that their earnings were used to offset housing charges alongside other fees from their employer. The complaint alleges that staying at employer-controlled housing was mandatory.

An audio recording shared with The Nevada Independent features Giles-Gomez's supervisor, Samuel Stratford, saying that if his commissions did not exceed his wages then "there's a debt" and that "the hole just gets bigger and deeper."

Another audio recording featured several H-2B employees confronting Stratford for violating a federal job order that said H-2B employees would be paid $20.29 per hour. The employees in the recording also said the job order had a condition that they would not be relocated outside of the defined area (in this case, Las Vegas).

"We are asking for this to be made right," Giles-Gomez said in the recording. "We are just asking to be paid what was on the job order." 

Virgo — one of the other parties in the suit — was evicted from employer-controlled housing with barely any income, the suit says. It also says that shortly after he was terminated, Virgo contacted the National Human Trafficking Hotline for help. 

The suit is still pending. A hearing to add Alvarez and Virgo to the suit is scheduled for April 21, while a mediation hearing between Giles-Gomez and Vivint is scheduled for April 30.