On February 3, 2026, dozens of white Texans donning “America First” hats, Marvel Punisher masks, and other American right-wing symbols poured into a Frisco, Texas city council meeting to protest what they saw as the “massive takeover of Indians” in the city. They are not the only ones preoccupied by this. According to the Dallas Observer, “Parents are watching their children become foreigners in classrooms that their tax dollars paid for.” Marc Palasciano, a conservative influencer, said the group’s main concern is Indians hijacking the H-1B visa program. “Frisco needs to wake up… [or] soon your entire City Council could be Indian,” Plasciano added.
In response to the furor, Indian Americans in Frisco voiced their dissent, calling out racism and citing their contributions to the city’s public and educational infrastructure. Jeff Cheney, the mayor of Frisco, also defended the rights of multiethnic cultures to exist within the city.
While largely under the national news radar, the Frisco incident was only one in a series of racist and xenophobic attacks against Indian Americans from 2025 to 2026. This is one modern instance of a recurring historical trend: White nationalist conservatives use the successes of minorities as a proxy for their wider fears about globalization and its threat to the established sociopolitical order.
Anti-immigrant sentiment may have decreased since the Trump administration took office — but a survey in early 2025 found that 48 percent of Republicans believe immigration should be decreased. There have been a number of recent high-profile examples of anti-immigrant rhetoric and mobilisation in conservative circles. In August, dozens of Christians gathered and protested the erection of a 90-foot statue of the Hindu deity Hanuman in Sugar Land, Texas. Harassment has taken place outside Hindu temples, with roadside protesters carrying signs that read “Don’t India My Texas,” “Deport H-1B Visa Scammers,” and “Reject Foreign Demons”. A Florida city councilman publicly vilified Indian Americans on social media and called for mass deportations. And in October, FBI Director Kash Patel’s post on X celebrating Diwali was met with far-right Christian and white nationalist backlash. In the same month, nearly 2,700 racist and xenophobic posts were fired off against Indians and Indian Americans on the social media platform.
Xenophobia has found footing throughout various periods of glory in the United States. Historical victims of this phenomenon include Irish Catholics (whose religion threatened the dominant Protestantism) and Italians—who were frequently accused of sedition and criminal activity. Attacks against the Chinese, who were portrayed as job-stealing contaminants to the predominantly white United States, proliferated in the following decades; notably, the Japanese were also persecuted as “enemy conspirators” in World War II.
Despite the cultural and economic contributions these groups have provided to the United States, “American” identity for immigrant communities is consistently achieved with serious delay. In the modern period, globalization has increased the flow of immigration towards the United States from a greater diversity of places than ever before, providing a multitude of targets for political scapegoating.
Some of the first Indian immigrants to the United States arrived after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, largely as replacement labor in the agriculture and lumber industries. It was not long before they were subjected to the “exclusion, exploitation, and routine humiliation” of white supremacy. The early 20th century saw restriction of Indian immigrants through the “Asiatic Barred Zone” bill. Although the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 eventually reopened entry gates, the Indian population in the United States before 1990 was still less than 500,000. At that time, their presence in America was subtle, and their development was nascent enough to warrant little hostility from neighbors.
But all of that changed with the advent of the H-1B visa, a work visa for foreign nationals hired for a ‘specialty occupation’. In 2000, 45 percent of all H-1B visas were issued to Indian nationals. In 2024, 71 percent of H-1B visas went to Indian recipients. Correspondingly, the population of Indian immigrants nearly tripled from 1,023,000 in 2000 to 2,910,000 in 2023. Hyperglobalization in this period is thus causally associated with the swell of a skilled Indian labor force in the United States. But to white Americans, they pose significant labor competition, a tension especially pronounced when social and economic crises grip the nation.
Within the United States, Indian Americans have achieved a great amount of success socioeconomically and politically. They earn an annual median income of $119,000, far exceeding the $83,784 median income of white families and slightly besting the $113,106 of Asian families as a whole. Pioneers of Indian heritage have emerged in technology, academia, business, and entertainment: Satya Nadella of Microsoft, also the recipient of the Padma Bhushan civilian award, has credited his success to his Indian upbringing, specifically citing “…the values, the curiosity, [and] the hunger to learn…”. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, a Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, has praised Indian scientists and spoke with certainty about India’s global rise. Mindy Kaling, an Emmy-nominated producer and actress, has produced popular works that attempt to show the polarizing identity crises Indian Americans navigate. To conservative American nationalists, the emergence of Indian Americans in various sectors that historically rewarded white excellence is undoubtedly grating; it threatens to upset the socioeconomic hierarchy within the United States, which is unequivocally steeped in race.
The increased participation of Indian Americans in the American political sphere on both sides of the aisle has arguably worsened these subconscious fears. In the last five years, Kamala Harris became the first non-white vice president of the United States; Usha Vance became the first non-white second lady, and both happened to be of Indian heritage. Vivek Ramaswamy and Kash Patel have headed government efficiency and FBI offices respectively; and most recently, Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed Democrat socialist, was sworn in as New York City’s newest mayor.
Indian Americans have historically been the poster child for the model minority myth. Historically, Hindus (i.e. the 48 percent of Indians living in the US who trace their heritage back to India) have also exhibited a strong capacity for academic innovation and entrepreneurial acumen. Coupled with the immense pressure to live up to familial expectations and warrant the sacrifices made by immigrant parents, many Indian Americans have pushed themselves relentlessly to achieve the “American Dream.”
2025 revealed a painful paradox at the heart of the Indian American experience. Their rising success in American society and politics has explicitly correlated with an increase in anti-Indian American rhetoric—and this is no coincidence. Historically, white Americans have turned to anti-immigrant policies when their position in the status quo is threatened. This is unequivocally happening today. 82 percent of Indian Americans have a college degree compared to 42 percent of whites; the annual median income of Indian American families far exceeds the median income of white families.
Throughout a scope of industries, Indian Americans have risen to the top, and now exert extensive influence on American society. Consequently, Indian Americans are portrayed as symbols of globalization and labor competition, allowing right-wing white activists to channel anxieties about immigration and national identity toward a specific, fast-growing minority group.
The anti-Indian mobilisation in Frisco exemplifies what happens when “[Indian American] success itself becomes a provocation.” The community’s success becomes completely reframed; rather than being perceived as a contribution to American society, it is increasingly used as evidence justify exclusionary narratives. Indian Americans are once again discovering that in America, assimilation and accomplishment do not automatically confer belonging.