One wears brownface and pretends to represent “H-1B News.” Another spoofs unwitting Indian Americans into signing petitions against the “H-1B virus.”
In the wake of the controversy surrounding H-1B visas, far-right provocateurs have taken to creating comedic content that relies on racist tropes against the Indian American community. Their goal: to express disapproval of the H-1B visa, a guest worker program that allows US firms to recruit IT workers from abroad for stints of three to six years. In 2022, 72.6% of such visas went to Indians.
On Monday, Casey Whalen, a self-styled journalist who runs the North Idaho Exposed channel on Rumble, entered the Idaho state capitol in Boise on the first day of the current legislative session. He wore brownface makeup and purported to be a reporter from “H-1B News” named “Bibek Ramaswamy.” Whalen solicited legislators for their views on the visa, sticking a mic in their faces. Many gave him amused looks but did not offer much comment.
Whalen wore a clownish costume with an absurdly short vest, a thick black wig, and a handlebar mustache. He pranced in the grounds pretending to be a Bollywood actor, swaying to flute music.
“The H-1B visa is very exciting,” Whalen said into the camera with an exaggerated fake Indian accent. “It allows Indians to come into America, take American jobs, and make lots of money.”
Later, Whalen went back to the grounds and pretended to defecate out in the open. As cities in India grow, proper sanitation is often not available to the slum-dweller population. This has become the basis of a common rightwing slur against Indians.
“So very nice to poop here,” Whalen said, sighing, seeming to enjoy the scenery.
On Sunday, in Buffalo, N.Y., vigilante “pedophile hunter” Alex Rosen tricked unwitting Indian American retail workers into signing a petition to stop the spread of the made-up “H-1B virus.” Rosen runs the Predator Poachers Rumble channel, where he features stings on would-be pedophiles executed on the LGBTQ dating app Grindr. At last check it had 100,000 followers, and Rosen’s X account had close to half a million followers.
Rosen’s elaborate prank involved creating a fake petition with room for three signatures—that he spelled “signasaar” to make fun of the way some Indians pronounce the word “sir.” Armed with the so-called petition, he entered retail establishments staffed by Indian Americans to solicit their signature.
“It’s a deadly disease,” he said to the first retail clerk featured in the video. When asked how it spreads, Rosen relied on two racist tropes. “Via diarrhea and terrible scent,” he said. “Actually I think it originated in India.”
Aside from sanitation-based humor, another trope often employed against Indians is to imply that they smell bad, due to the strong smell of spices used in Indian cuisine.
At the end of the video, Rosen looked into the camera and addressed Trump. “So Trump,” he said, “even Indians want to get rid of the H-1B, why don’t you? Man up.”
Rosen got solid pushback on his video prank, both from Indian and non-Indian X users. “You’re a horrible little man,” one person who claimed to have an Indian wife said.
“Poop,” Rosen responded.
The H-1B visa controversy was set off a few days before Christmas when President Elect Trump announced that Indian American Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan would be joining his cabinet as an AI policy advisor. Trump’s allies in the tech industry, including Elon Musk and David Sacks, cheered at the choice. However, Krishnan’s deployment angered Trump’s far-right nativist base.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer objected to Krishnan’s appointment instantly. Loomer, who was seen by Trump’s side during the 2024 campaign, uncovered an old post from Krishnan where he advocates removing country caps for green cards to permit more skills-based immigration, particularly from India, where the demand for both immigrant and non-immigrant visas regularly exceeds capacity.
“This is not America First policy,” Loomer said.
Loomer, who has almost a million and a half followers on X, set off an explosion of rage from the nativist right, and drew a response from Trump’s Silicon Valley ally, PayPal billionaire David Sacks.
Elon Musk joined the battle on the behalf of more H-1B visas. In a profanity-laden post, he promised to “go to war” on this issue.
Former Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been assigned, along with Musk, to run the new department known as “DOGE” for cutting government spending, threw fuel on the fire by appearing to blame American culture for why Asians seem to disproportionately secure high-paying technical positions.
The backlash against Indian tech workers kept going on the X platform for weeks after Christmas, driven by the far-right nativist part of Trump’s base, in what many called the “MAGA civil war.” The war did not abate even after Trump himself came out in favor of H-1Bs.
Steve Bannon, one of the most influential Trump supporters with over a million followers on his War Room channel, and a member of his cabinet during the first Trump term, staked his position in opposition to Trump and Musk, demanding “complete and total elimination” of the H-1B visa.
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