Indian-American Congressman Shri Thanedar, a Democrat from Michigan, became the target of MAGA extremists over the weekend after expressing his support for the H-1B visa program and advocating for increased legal immigration to the United States. The vitriol directed at Thanedar, who was born in Karnataka, India, escalated to racist and xenophobic comments, including suggestions that he “go back to India.”

Comments like “Can I buy you a ticket to Mumbai? One way, of course,” and “You need to be denaturalized and deported” filled social media in response to Thanedar’s call for streamlining the H-1B visa process to maintain America’s global edge in innovation. One commenter remarked, “Go back to your own country and be innovative there,” in a display of extreme nativist rhetoric.

The H-1B program, which provides temporary visas to highly skilled foreign workers, has long been a flashpoint for debate in the United States. Indians, who receive the majority of H-1B visas, have become a specific target for MAGA hardliners. These critics claim the program enables corporations to undercut American wages and replace domestic workers with foreign labor, despite safeguards preventing such misuse.

Critics questioned the overwhelming percentage of H-1B visas allocated to Indians. One comment read, “Will you adjust how 73% of H-1Bs have historically gone to Indians and 13% to Chinese, while 0.3% have gone to European groups like Germans?” Critics often ignore factors such as India’s large population, English proficiency, and the established pipeline of students attending U.S. universities Read More….