An Indian-origin biomedical engineer in Houston has been exonerated after becoming the target of a high-profile misinformation campaign on social media. Sadhana Gollapudi, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was falsely branded a “visa fraudster” in an X (formerly Twitter) post that garnered over three million views. The viral post accused her of being a “forever F1 student” since 2014, alleging she had manipulated the U.S. immigration system for over a decade while illegally working as a dancer and tutor.
The situation escalated when U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Aaron Reitz, publicly addressed the controversy after his office investigated the claims. “Thanks for flagging. My office looked. She’s a naturalized U.S. citizen, not here on a student visa,” Reitz stated on X. While confirming her legal status, the attorney also used the platform to reiterate his office’s commitment to prosecuting genuine visa fraud, warning that “neither illegal aliens nor those who obtain legal status illegally are welcome on American soil”.
This rhetoric drew sharp criticism from the Indian American Impact Action Fund (IAA) and other advocacy groups. Critics argued that by pivoting to a lecture on illegal immigration, the federal prosecutor failed to condemn the act of doxxing and malicious harassment against a U.S. citizen. The IAA emphasized that “naturalized Americans are not second-class citizens” and demanded a formal retraction from the account responsible for the smear. The incident has sparked broader concerns regarding the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment and the increasing use of social media to target South Asian professionals in the United States with unchecked, anonymous allegations.
