Eric Schmitt also alleged that some Big Tech contractors had exposed cases of Indian visa holders sharing confidential interview questions with applicants from India.
The Republican senator from Missouri also shared a photograph of the Chilkur Balaji Temple, located near Hyderabad. (AFP file photos)
US Senator Eric Schmitt has triggered controversy after he claimed that a “Visa Cartel” has its “own Visa Temple” in Hyderabad, referring to the Chilkur Balaji Temple, as he stepped up criticism of the US H-1B visa programme.
In a series of posts on X, the Republican senator from Missouri also shared a photograph of the Chilkur Balaji Temple, located near Hyderabad. The shrine is widely known as the “Visa Temple” due to a popular belief that prayers offered there help devotees secure overseas visas, particularly for travel to the United States.
The H-1B program is a total fraud and a total scam.Globalist corporations want America’s markets, America’s courts, and America’s protections—but not America’s workers.
That betrayal must end now. https://t.co/LDOZzJRqsL
— Senator Eric Schmitt (@SenEricSchmitt) May 14, 2026
“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,” Schmitt wrote, arguing that American workers “shouldn’t have to compete against a system this gamed”.
In his post, the US senator also alleged that some Big Tech contractors had exposed cases of Indian visa holders sharing confidential interview questions with applicants from India. He further claimed that American workers were being “quietly locked out” as jobs were routed through such pipelines, adding that merit, in his view, was being replaced by “ethnic favoritism”.
“Enough. We must end the fraud, shutdown these networks, close the loopholes, and ensure we serve American workers,” he wrote in another follow-up post.
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