In a series of posts on X, the Republican senator from Missouri attacked the US employment-based visa system, alleging it suppresses local wages and creates a global “Visa Cartel” that displaces American workers.
US Senator Eric Schmitt sparked an online controversy by targeting Hyderabad’s Chilkur Balaji Temple, popularly known as the “Visa Temple”, while he was criticising the US H-1B visa programme.
In a series of posts on X, the Republican senator from Missouri attacked the US employment-based visa system, alleging it suppresses local wages and creates a global “Visa Cartel” that displaces American workers.
He claimed that programmes such as H-1B, L-1, F-1 and Optional Practical Training (OPT) are “hollowing” the American middle class.
“Billions now flow to India for AI training instead, subsidised by Americans,” he wrote on X.
To illustrate his claims, Schmitt shared a photo of the Chilkur Balaji Temple, stating that it is a “Visa Temple” that Indians or the “Visa Cartel” pray at for getting their visas successfully granted.
“The “Visa Cartel” has its own “Visa Temple” in Hyderabad, which sees thousands of Indians circling altars and getting passports blessed for U.S. work visas. American workers shouldn’t have to compete against a system this gamed”, Schmitt wrote in a post on X.
In a separate tweet, he alleged that foreign students, of whom almost half are Indians, get taxpayer-subsidised work permits and corporations do not get any payroll taxes or wage rules.
“They flow into H-1B, then green cards, while U.S. grads with debt compete against cheaper labour,” he said.
Taking the argument further, Schmitt said that is not where the “cartel’s work is done”. He said Indian visa holders share confidential questions that are asked in interviews with other applicants from India.
“Big Tech quietly locks out Americans by routing jobs through these pipelines. Merit is now replaced by ethnic favoritism”, he wrote.