Texas Republican Bo French faces backlash after UT Austin football photo sparks debate over foreign students

A REPUBLICAN nominee for a Texas office drew criticism from both Republicans and Democrats after posting a photo from a University of Texas football game and suggesting the Austin campus had a large foreign student presence.

Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas railroad commissioner, posted a crowd shot that critics called racist. The image appeared to show students of south Asian descent, which French used to suggest a large foreignborn or international student presence at the university.

“I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined,” French posted on X. He claimed that UT prioritizes foreign students in admissions and said Texans were losing opportunities to attend the university.

“I weep for the families in Texas who can’t get into UT because they prioritize foreigners over Texans,” he said.

But University of Texas at Austin enrollment figures show international students account for less than 10 per cent of the student body. Total enrollment reached 55,000 in fall 2025, including 5,140 international students. Texas residents made up 80.5 per cent of all enrolled students.

Among undergraduates, international students made up 4.3 per cent. State law requires 90 per cent of every incoming freshman class to be Texas residents. UT Austin automatically admits the top five per cent of performers at every high school in the state. Those students are Texas residents.

The Texas legislature designed the initiative to promote diversity without explicitly considering race. By guaranteeing admission to top students at each high school, the policy helps universities draw from a broad crosssection of Texas communities.

More than 90 per cent of students at UT Austin are domestic, and more than four out of every five are Texans.

Vedant Nair, 24, who graduated from UT in 2024, said his parents immigrated to Oklahoma from Mumbai in the 1990s so his father could pursue an MBA at Oklahoma State University.

Nair was born in Oklahoma City. After his family moved to Dallas when he was in elementary school, he said his upbringing was no different from that of his fellow Texans.

Attending UT Austin was a dream come true and a normal American experience, he said.

“If you stripped away my name and skin color, I think my story is pretty similar to a lot of other Texans at massive public high schools,” Nair said. “The point is that myself, and all the other kids in that picture, are just regular American kids.”

University spokespeople and French did not respond to requests for comment.

The debate is part of a broader political argument that non-US citizens are “displacing” American students at elite public universities.

French’s remarks drew criticism from political figures and other social media users, who characterized the posts as racist or xenophobic. Rodney Coates, a sociology professor at Miami University in Ohio, said French’s comments echoed longstanding anti-immigrant and anti-Asian narratives in the US that have historically portrayed minority groups as threats to opportunities for others.

“It’s easier to come up with a racist argument to organize a group of people under the presumption that, hey, they’re hurting your chances,” Coates said.

Such appeals often have little to do with the people being targeted and instead seek to mobilize voters by portraying them as victims.

“Hate is one of the easiest means of organizing,” he said.

University figures show white students made up about 31.5 per cent of enrollment in 2024-25, Hispanic students 25.5 per cent and Asian students 22.4 per cent.

University reporting treats race and ethnicity separately from international student status, meaning most students categorized as Asian are US citizens or permanent residents rather than international students.

The image French shared was a screenshot from a video posted by the official athletics account at UT Austin. He did not include information identifying the citizenship, immigration status, residency or enrollment status of any individuals shown.

For Nair, the post criticized a high point in school-pride history: the football team had defeated The Ohio State University, the No. 1-ranked team in the country. “I don’t think there is anything more American than people in cowboy hats yelling their heads off after one of the greatest comeback wins in college football history,” he said.