Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official who became the face of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, blamed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s defeat on H-1B visa holders. One problem: they can’t vote.
“Folks, Greg Abbott did this to himself,” Bovino wrote on X on Tuesday as results showed Democrat Gina Hinojosa beating Abbott. “He begged the tech companies to come to Texas, and he had them bring their H1b employees, most of which are from India. 70 to 80 percent vote democrat.”
“He pleased big business and got himself voted out,” he continued. “Did you ever wonder why the US Border Patrol was not mass deporting illegal aliens out of Houston or Dallas wholesale? His chickens have come home to roost.”
Elon Musk's X site quickly added a Community Note to the post.
“H-1B holders cannot vote; only U.S. citizens can,” the note reads. “Indians face long green card waits (often 10+ years) then 5 more for citizenship. ~228k Indian American eligible voters in TX lean Dem, small vs ~700k margin. Latino voter shifts were larger drivers.”
Some of the harshest reactions came from the right.
“How does this guy not know H-1B holders can’t vote?” asked conservative commentator Erick Erickson.
“These guys are convincing themselves that the Indian-American immigrant vote cost the GOP Texas,” wrote Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Dispatch. “That’s moronic.”
HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte joined in: “I wonder if he knows there is a ‘b’ in dumb.”
Some observers also seized on Bovino’s suggestion that Border Patrol had held back from “mass deporting illegal aliens out of Houston or Dallas wholesale.” They read it as a hint that major Texas cities had been shielded from the kind of aggressive operations Bovino led in Chicago, Charlotte and Minneapolis.
Exit analyses have pointed to a sharp swing among Latino voters, along with anger over the Iran war and rising prices, as major factors in Republicans’ Texas losses. Several House Republicans told Fox News this week that the administration’s immigration crackdown damaged the party’s standing with Latino voters.