“Indian Takeover” Makes Headlines in Austin
For H-1 Eyes ONLY
Have you been monitoring this situation?
Texas Republicans spent years courting Indian voters. Then came talk of the “Indian takeover.”
A North Texas city has become the epicenter of a collision between the GOP’s efforts to win over Indian American voters and some conservatives’ nativist agenda.
Over the last few months, Frisco has become the unwilling backdrop for a larger conflict between Republicans’ nascent relationship with Indian American voters, and the party’s rising nativist strain, which rejects anyone not born here, including naturalized citizens.
The same faction that’s been targeting Muslims over the specter of Sharia law has turned its hostility toward Texas’ growing Indian community, accusing them of exploiting the H-1B visa program to steal American jobs and undercut wages.
“We’ve got communities like Frisco that have been totally transformed, whether it’s Islamic immigration or immigration from anywhere else in Asia… If you go to some of these areas, you feel like you’re in a foreign country, and that’s a problem. America is for our people. We have a distinct heritage … and that’s something we as conservatives should seek to actually conserve.”” Rep. Brandon Gill
Gill and other members of Texas’ congressional delegation have called for a freeze on all legal immigration, citing concerns with the H-1B visa program, which is primarily used by high-skill Indian immigrants.
They’re very high-skilled —especially when the story has to make sense on paper. Like the supply chain analyst and senior business analyst someone somehow found working at a daycare with no children. I’m sure they have more advanced degrees than me, a simple American.
Many testifying at Frisco City Council meetings or posting about the city on social media go far beyond asking for immigration reform. There’s been a surge in anti-Indian racism on social media since Trump returned to the White House, framing legal immigrants as “job stealers” and “invaders.”
I gotta be 100% honest with the readers. Have you ever been to India?
Tremendous place, folks, you should see it. So beautiful, and ancient, but modern in all the right ways. They have the most highly skilled people you’ve ever seen, okay? High skilled, the highest skilled, believe me. Nobody does high skilled like the Indians. We’re talking engineers, doctors, tech geniuses—world-class, the best anywhere. I’ve seen it, I know it. They come here, they start really incredible tech companies, sometimes several companies, and they do it in these totally empty offices. People walk into these businesses, folks, and believe me they are tremendous businesses, and they look around: no furniture, no people, nothing. They say, “Hey, where are the workers?” I look at ’em and I say, “Hey, ya big dummy, don’t you get it? These are highly skilled workers! The most highly skilled people you’ve ever seen. They’re so highly skilled they’re already done for the day!” Incredible talent. High skilled like nobody’s ever seen. Nobody even comes close, believe me.
Daily Takeover Brief:
Yesterday, the city of Frisco’s Planning & Zoning Commission approved one new mosque and two new Hindu temples:
