Frisco City Councilman Burt Thakur on Tuesday rejected allegations circulating online linking him to immigration fraud or claims of demographic manipulation, calling them baseless and a distraction from the city’s real issues.
The comments follow a Jan. 20 Frisco City Council meeting, where resident Marc Palasciano used public comment time to allege widespread abuse of the H-1B visa program and suggest that demographic shifts in the fast-growing North Texas suburb were the result of organized manipulation. Clips of his remarks quickly spread on social media and were later amplified by several outlets.
READ: Companies under fire over hiring Indians amid H1-B backlash (January 15, 2026)
Videos of Palasciano’s speech have drawn national and international attention to Frisco, pushing the city into a broader, more heated conversation about immigration, tech workers, and the role of H-1B professionals in rapidly growing American communities.
In his remarks, Palasciano also raised questions about campaign donations made to Mayor Jeff Cheney and to Thakur, who became Frisco’s first Indian American city council member after his election in 2025. He suggested, without evidence, that there were connections between political donors, real estate interests, and companies linked to the federal H-1B visa program.
In a telephone interview with The Dallas Express, Thakur said he has no role in setting or enforcing federal immigration policy and pushed back on the idea that local officials are engineering demographic change.
“H-1B is something that I have no control of,” Thakur said. “That’s a USCIS issue. That’s a federal government [responsibility].”
He added that he has nothing to hide and would fully support an investigation if any violations were uncovered. “I really would have no problem with any federal agency coming in and doing an audit,” Thakur said. “And if things are found that are illegal … I’ll be the first supporter and the biggest supporter of those agencies coming in and being able to do their job.”
Thakur’s point aligns with how the system works. Under the U.S. Constitution’s federal structure, city council members in Texas have virtually no authority over visa programs, which are handled at the national level. Federal records also show that the City of Frisco does not directly employ any H-1B workers, according to the USCIS H-1B database.
Another claim raised by Palasciano involved an assertion that Thakur had relied on a consulting firm connected to a past fraud case. That allegation later shifted. In an email to The Dallas Express, Palasciano acknowledged that he had misidentified the firm, saying he confused two companies with similar names and that he had “issued an apology and will be making a correction at the next meeting.” Even so, he said he continued to stand by his broader questions about campaign donations and companies tied to the H-1B visa program.
Thakur responded by defending his campaign fundraising and rejecting the idea that donations amount to improper influence. He said he was “very proud” of his donors and stressed that lawful contributions do not translate into control over an elected official. Thakur said he did not screen donors based on immigration status or whether they worked for companies that use business visas, noting that such information would not realistically be available to a local candidate.
Campaign finance records show that several donors had Indian-sounding names, though most listed addresses in Frisco or nearby cities such as Wylie. Thakur said he finds the underlying premise of the criticism offensive.
“If people have done stuff legally … it’s something that is their right to do,” he said, adding that he takes particular issue with the suggestion that the presence of Indian residents is itself suspect. “Please, feel free to tell me what percentage of the population is allowed to be Indian,” Thakur said.
Thakur also cast his role in straightforward terms, describing himself as an American citizen focused on the responsibilities of local government rather than national immigration battles. He pointed to his military service around the time of 9/11 and said he supports policies that prioritize jobs for U.S. citizens.
He said his work on the council centers on bread-and-butter issues such as infrastructure, public safety, workforce development, and bringing higher-paying jobs to Frisco, a city where the median home price now sits at about $600,000.
“What could I do about it as a councilman?” he said, referring to broader immigration concerns. “You want to talk about potholes, you want to talk about roads, you want to talk about funding the police — that’s my area of purview.”
The Dallas Express reached out to Mayor Jeff Cheney for comment on Palasciano’s allegations and campaign donations, but he did not respond by the time of publication.
Palasciano, who described himself as a former T-Mobile whistleblower, acknowledged in an email that he does not see Thakur as driving demographic change in Frisco. “I don’t believe Burt is having much impact on the demographics changing in Frisco. I see Burt as a product of those demographics already changing. Indians showed up to the voting polls to make sure they got their guy in office,” he wrote.
Thakur does not dispute that Indian voters supported him. He said he worked hard to ensure they voted Republican, emphasizing that Indians are a significant voting bloc in North Texas. “I’m trying to make sure they are America First Republicans, not Democrats, as they are in other parts of the country,” he told DX.
For Thakur, the conversation should focus on civic participation rather than accusations. “Exercise your freedom of speech. Go out and vote,” he said. “If we have [fraud] here, I’ll be the first one to tear it down. … But if your problem is that you just don’t like it, I can’t help you.”