4 February 12 - 18, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Frisco’s ‘Indian Takeover’ Ethnic bigotry, alleged H-1B visa fraud inflame council meeting. BY EMMA RUBY A dozen speakers — clad in “America First” hats, sweat- ers covered in the Punisher skull logo that has become associated with far-right groups and Confederate flags — spoke to a full City Council chamber in Frisco on Feb. 3 to rage against supposed fraud linked to the H-1B visa and the “Indian takeover” plagu- ing the city. The speeches were part of a social me- dia campaign aimed at addressing the “flood of foreigners” that has come to Frisco in recent years. A video posted to X by conservative influencer Kaylee Camp- bell urged disgruntled North Texans to at- tend the council meeting and speak about the “massive takeover” of Indians in Frisco. The video has been viewed more than 370,000 times. “Frisco is changing at a speed that no community can absorb without damage … When lifelong residents voice concern, we are told our concern is bigotry. That is a lie,” said Dylan Law, a University of North Texas student from Frisco. “Parents are watching their children become foreigners in class- rooms that their tax dollars paid for.” It is true that Frisco’s demographics have rapidly changed in recent years. According to a city-released 2026 population overview, 33% of Frisco’s residents are Asian, up from 26% in 2020 and 10% in 2010. This influx of primarily Indian house- holds to Collin County has been a talking point along the fringes of conservative, North Texas-based social media circles for months, but was brought to the mainstream in recent weeks after Gov. Greg Abbott an- nounced a freeze on H-1B visas, a federal program that allows employers to hire workers from outside the U.S., typically for technical or research-based jobs. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services re- ports that nearly 75% of H-1B visas are is- sued to individuals from India. Claims of widespread H-1B visa fraud are unsubstantiated. Still, speakers last week accused the Frisco City Council of re- maining complicit despite the deceit they believe is being committed by the town’s Indian population. Richard Abernathy, a Frisco city attorney, said the city has no control or involvement in the H-1B pro- gram, which the Department of Homeland Security administers. On Jan. 28, Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a probe into three North Texas businesses that he believes may be scam- ming the visa process. Some speakers urged the City Council to request that Paxton fur- ther investigate Frisco-area businesses and to pass an ordinance requiring local busi- nesses to comply with probes by the Depart- ment of Homeland Security to weed out fraud. “It’s not a coincidence that Frisco’s In- dian population exploded … and there’s visa fraud here,” said Marc Palasciano, a self- proclaimed “whistleblower” who has fre- quented Frisco City Council meetings to speak on the issue. “Frisco needs to wake up. Soon your entire City Council could be In- dian.” A majority of those who spoke against Frisco’s Indian population were not from Frisco. Their talking points were often simi- lar to those that have been used this year by far-right influencers in Minnesota who have perpetuated a conspiracy of widespread so- cial services fraud amongst the state’s So- mali community. Allegations that illegitimate child care centers are profiting from government subsidies have driven those content creators to swarm Minneso- ta’s immigrant-run daycares armed with cameras. Another dozen individuals, many of them Indian themselves and most being Frisco residents, spoke in support of Fris- co’s Indian community. Their comments emphasized the benefits of diversity and cultural immersion, the economic contri- butions Frisco’s Indian population makes to the town, and the country’s melting pot reputation. “Somewhere along the way Indians came to America, and then they became Ameri- cans, and then they helped to reinforce the American Dream because the American Dream requires participation,” said Frisco City Council member Burt Thakur. “People are upset. And I suppose what I’m trying to say to you is this. Look to the left of you and look to the right of you. This is Frisco. … To- gether we can do amazing things.” Amit Radjadhyaksha, a longtime Frisco resident, said he felt compelled to speak at the meeting after seeing a troop of Webelos Scouts lead the meeting’s pledge of alle- giance. Several of the children in the group appeared to be of Indian descent. Radjad- hyaksha said his own children were mem- bers of the scouting organization when they were growing up in Frisco, and it was a foundational aspect of their childhood. “I would welcome anyone who has diver- gent views to come sit down over a beer or a coffee and have a conversation about what we can do to help each other out in these times,” Radjadhyaksha said. “I’m Indian, I’m American. I’m a proud citizen of Frisco, and I’m not going anywhere.” ▼ ICE & IMMIGRATION ICE NEEDS WATER COULD STALLING INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADES BLOCK A LOCAL DETENTION WAREHOUSE? BY EMMA RUBY W hen it comes to the ICE deten- tion facility proposed for Hutchins, a town of 5,600 that sits 12 miles south of downtown Dallas, offi- cials have more questions than answers. Has the sale of the 1-million-square-foot warehouse at the heart of the plan actually gone through? Do federal immigration offi- cials have a plan to provide food, water and sanitation services to the facility slated to hold nearly 10,000 detainees? When is this center, potentially the largest in the nation, expected to open? The Hutchins City Council and Dallas County officials don’t know the answers to any of those questions. Various leaders say they have received no word from state and federal officials on the widely reported plan to convert a warehouse designed for ship- ping logistics into an immigration enforce- ment holding facility. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Home- land Security, has told The Dallas Morning News that the agency is not ready to an- nounce any new detention facilities, but that hasn’t stopped speculation from swirling about the apparent deal that is underway in North Texas. In December, The Washington Post re- ported that it had obtained documents out- lining plans to retrofit warehouses into large-scale holding centers, and Hutchins was one of seven cities named. Since that re- port was released, there have been unveri- fied reports of ICE officials conducting site visits at the Hutchins warehouse on Inter- state 45. The Observer obtained a title commit- ment document — an agreement that out- lines the terms of an insurance policy for a real estate holding after a sale is finalized — that appears to have been issued for the Hutchins warehouse and is dated Jan. 22. A buyer is not listed on the document, but an internal document reviewed by The News does list the Hutchins warehouse as part of the plans for ICE’s expansion. During a Feb. 2 Hutchins city council meeting, Mayor Mario Vasquez said “no pa- perwork has been filed” that would suggest infrastructural changes at the massive facil- ity are underway; “no applications, no build- ing permits, no certificates of occupancy, nothing related to the infrastructure,” he said. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins told the Observer that the county has not re- ceived a deed transfer for the building. To his knowledge, ICE doesn’t yet own the warehouse. But that doesn’t mean the agency isn’t in- terested in the type of operation that would see people moved and stored like packages. “We need to get better at treating this like a business,” ICE Director Todd Lyons said last April. “Like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings.” The leadership of Hutchins has been em- phatic that a detention center is not wel- come within the town’s limits. Above the moral, political and partisan reasons for their stance, they’ve stressed that the town’s infrastructure could not support a facility the size of the one outlined in ICE’s internal documents. “If you just look at the infrastructure im- pact that would have, and the development impact that would have for southern Dallas County, it’s a pretty stark and bad outcome,” said Jenkins. Running Low on Water H utchins is on a restricted water sys- tem, Jenkins said. When new busi- nesses come to town, they are required to meet with city officials to deter- mine their water and sewage allocation, en- suring there’s enough to go around. Including the number of staff required to run a facility for 9,500 individuals, the pro- posed ICE facility would grow Hutchins’ population by nearly 200% overnight. “That situation, of an infrastructure, water and sewage shortage, already exists in Hutchins. Nobody has to do something Jacob Vaughn Frisco’s democraophics have changed significantly in recent years. | UNFAIR PARK | >> p6
