India-West News Desk
CINCINNATI, OH – Ohio Republican candidate and avowed MAGA supporter Vivek Ramaswamy recently marked his 10th wedding anniversary with a heartfelt social media post celebrating his wife, Apoorva. But what began as a personal reflection on love and commitment quickly became the target of online racism, surfacing amid escalating tensions over U.S. immigration policy.
In the post, Ramaswamy recounted his first date with Apoorva, whom he met in 2011 when she was a medical student. He described their early connection during a hike up Flattop Mountain in the Rockies, where a blizzard cut their climb short. “I was foolishly stubborn about still making it, when she grabbed my hand, looked me in the eye, & said we had a lifetime ahead to come back and finish it,” he wrote. “Fourteen years & two kids later, we finally made it back to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary this weekend. Grateful for the love of my life & every day of our journey together.”
Alongside the post, Ramaswamy shared two photos—one from that first date and another from their recent return to the same mountain.
However, the post quickly drew a wave of xenophobic and anti-immigrant replies, with some users telling the couple to “go back to India” and calling for their deportation.
Ironically, Ramaswamy himself has been a vocal critic of the H-1B visa program, which allows U.S. employers to hire skilled foreign workers, particularly in the tech sector. Yet online critics accused him of benefiting from or representing the very system he has condemned—solely based on his Indian heritage.
The controversy comes as immigration, particularly high-skilled foreign labor, remains a hot-button issue in the U.S. The debate has reignited following Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, with many on the right calling for tighter controls on visa programs. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 70% of H-1B recipients in 2023 were Indian nationals—a figure that continues to fuel arguments about the program’s impact on domestic employment.
Ramaswamy is not alone in facing this kind of backlash. In recent weeks, Walmart’s Chief Technology Officer Suresh Kumar has also been subjected to racist attacks online, as tensions over immigration and foreign-born professionals intensify.