- A city council meeting in Texas saw heated debate over H-1B visa program targeting Indian community
- Speakers used racist tropes and conspiracy theories without evidence, citing "Indian takeover" claims
- Frisco Mayor called many speakers "outside agitators" not representing city's diverse population
A regular City Council meeting in Texas turned heated this month as residents clashed over the federal H-1B visa programme. Speakers in the Frisco City Council in Dallas invoked racist tropes and conspiracy theories targeting the city's Indian community.
During a two-hour open floor session, several speakers, angered by a recent viral video alleging visa fraud, criticised the programme that allows US employers to hire specialised foreign workers. The H-1B visa programme, established in 1990, permits up to 85,000 new foreign workers annually in specialty occupations. Although that cap applies to new visas, hundreds of thousands of workers hold valid H-1B status at any given time, including renewals.
Some described what they called an “Indian takeover” of Frisco and labelled the visa system as filled with “fraudsters” and “low-quality scammers,” without providing evidence, The New York Times reported.
“We must maintain our Rhodesia,” said one speaker, referencing the former white-ruled southern African state that is now Zimbabwe.
Other residents raised more traditional concerns about job displacement and wage suppression. South Asian residents said they were fearful and felt unsafe.
“In a career spanning 40 years, I have never encountered this type of rhetoric,” Conservative politician Dinesh D'Souza wrote on X. “The Right never used to talk like this. So who on our side has legitimised this type of vile degradation? It's a question worth thinking about.”
The residents said that any fraud in the visa programme should be addressed but rejected broad characterisations of their community. “People are worried about their personal safety,” said a Frisco resident born in India who grew up partly in the US. “Our kids have been here, they consider themselves American,” she told The NYT. “This is their home, this is our home.”
In a statement, Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney described many of the speakers as “outside agitators” who did not represent the majority of residents in the city, where roughly one-third of the population is of Asian heritage.
According to Pew Research Center, about three-quarters of approved H-1B petitions in 2023 were for workers from India. The Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area ranked among the top regions nationwide for approved applications that year, many of them in technology roles such as software development and engineering. Federal rules require employers to pay H-1B workers wages comparable to similarly qualified US employees.
US President Donald Trump has used anti-immigration rhetoric while also acknowledging the need for certain high-skilled workers. Recently, he signed an executive order imposing a $100,000 fee on some new H-1B applications.
In Frisco, tensions were heightened after a conservative content creator posted a video alleging local H-1B fraud. Shortly afterward, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered a pause on H-1B hiring at public universities and state agencies. Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into three businesses mentioned in the video.
The controversy comes as the Indian American population has grown significantly in the United States. Census data show that people of Indian origin are now the largest Asian group in the country that identifies with a single nation of origin, accounting for about 1.5 per cent of the total US population.
