Engineer Races Home from India Amid Visa Fee Fears
Amrutha Tamanam, an engineer based in Austin, found herself in a scramble to return to the United States while on vacation in India. This panic was sparked by an unexpected announcement from former President Donald Trump, revealing a hefty new fee of $100,000 for her visa category.
As she hurried to book a flight back home, far-right online groups targeted flight booking systems, launching a campaign they dubbed “clog the toilet.” Their aim was to block visa holders from securing tickets to the U.S.
The White House later clarified that the new H-1B visa fee would only apply to future applicants, not those already holding the visa. However, many large U.S. companies had already urged their international employees to return as quickly as possible to avoid disruptions.
In her attempts to book a flight from Vijayawada, Tamanam faced constant challenges as online reservation systems crashed repeatedly due to the trolling efforts. On a forum, users were encouraged to begin the checkout process for flights but abandon them, effectively clogging the system and complicating booking for visa holders.
This coordinated effort directly impacted Tamanam, whose flight bookings faced timeouts far quicker than usual. After several frustrating tries, she finally managed to buy a one-way ticket to Dallas with Qatar Airways, costing her around $2,000—over double her initial round-trip fare.
“It was really tough for me to book a ticket, and I ended up paying a lot for my urgent travel,” she shared.
The online thread encouraging this disruption included inflammatory comments suggesting that keeping Indians in India was the goal. Many posts, filled with racist language, advised users to reserve seats on popular routes without completing the purchases, significantly driving up the prices and reducing availability.
Users boasted about holding numerous seats on airlines, claiming that they were successfully blocking the last few spots on a flight back to the U.S. While some users claimed to have slowed down airline websites, Air India stated that their systems remained unaffected.
Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, noted that this trolling attempt aimed to create panic among H-1B visa holders. She emphasized the site’s troubling ability to radicalize individuals and promote extremist views.
H-1B visas, which allow U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in specialized fields like science and technology, are awarded through a lottery system, with India being the largest recipient.
Experts indicated that this incident highlights how easily online groups can collaborate for disruptive purposes. Brian Levin, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, pointed out that as nationalist sentiments rise globally, these groups are finding new ways to mobilize against various communities online.
In this case, Tamanam’s experience illustrates the real-world consequences of online trolling, where a simple click can lead to widespread panic and hardship.
