“I didn’t vote for white nationalism. I didn’t vote for nativism. I didn’t vote to be called stinky or be dehumanised,” declares Indian American data engineer Sidharth. 

When the presidential elections were conducted in the United States of America in November 2024, Sidharth had voted for Donald Trump, former President and Republican party candidate. He says he voted in the hopes that a Trump administration would bring in fiscal conservatism. But very soon, this San Francisco-based owner of an IT consulting firm was deeply disappointed.

The reason: a significant section of the Republican party opposes H-1B visas whose beneficiaries are predominantly science and engineering graduates of Indian origin, like Sidharth. To make matters worse, far right MAGA supporters – MAGA being shorthand for Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” – have been spewing racist vitriol against people of Indian origin in recent weeks.

At the core of the MAGA base is an expectation that Trump will take a hardline stance against immigrants, especially H-1B visa holders. This faction views foreign workers as a threat, and expects Trump to reinforce the white supremacist image he embodies. 

Adding an ironic layer to the hostility, MAGA supporters have hit back at Indians calling out racism by pointing to casteism and the rigid enforcement of caste endogamy within Indian communities.

One viral video showed far right commentator Stew Peters calling Indian immigrants “third world parasites”. Laura Loomer, known as a conspiracy theorist with over a million followers on X, accused tech billionaires of using their access to Trump to push for “slave labourers from India and China”. 

On the other end, advocating for “technical talent” over nationality in the hiring process, are an extremely influential group of Trump supporters including tech barons such as Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican who dropped out of the presidential race earlier.

TNM engaged with a diverse spectrum of individuals within the Indian American community, exploring the challenges embedded within the H-1B visa process. As the far right’s xenophobic rhetoric escalates, several voices within the diaspora say that it is time for the Indian community to take a hard look at how they have contributed to racial and caste stereotypes. This row has put the focus on the Indian American diaspora’s beliefs in ‘meritocracy’, an idea with historic ties to the ‘model minority’ myth, caste and racial supremacy, and eugenics.

The MAGA ‘civil war’

Having once been a holder of the H-1B visa himself and now a businessman who hires Indians on the same visa, Sidharth alleges that the “shameless reality” of US immigration is that it is a broken system.

Calls to reform the H-1B visa program – meant for temporary employment in specialist occupations – have come from across the political spectrum in the US. Uniting them is their belief that multibillion dollar corporations are using the visa to edge out Americans from the job market and hire temporary employees who can be paid less.