A Texas businessman, Daniel Keene, has been expelled from his church and gym and lost thousands in sales after his post criticising Indian immigrants and H-1B visas went viral, triggering a storm of backlash across the US.
He shared a video in early September showing a local Ganesh Chaturthi procession, captioned: “We have to cancel the H-1Bs. I want my kids to grow up in America, not India.” Due to the overwhelming negative response to his tweet, he decided to remove it. He has now spoken out, though, about having to pay a high price for his opinion on H-1B.
After the post went viral, he was accused of extortion threats, suffered large business losses, and was kicked out of both his gym and his church. Keene maintains that he has no regrets in spite of the controversy, saying he meant to draw attention to the practical effects of the policy.
"I wanted to bring awareness to the policy's effect on the ground," Keene told Newsweek in an interview. "I did not want to get death threats.
Who is Daniel Keene?
Daniel Keene is a 30-year-old businessman who runs Boundaries Coffee in suburban Dallas. According to his LinkedIn profile, he graduated from Walton Business School and has worked in Finance, Real Estate.
In a series of posts on X, he claimed that he was expelled from his church after his tweet. He alleged that the church elders put him through hours of interrogation in response to his post, declined to see his “character witnesses from Indian friends,” and refused to review his anti-racism posts.
Indian American communities swiftly reacted negatively to his post, accusing Keene of being intolerant and xenophobic. A religious street procession briefly blocked their route as they drove through the neighborhood in the video, which was purportedly taken by his wife.
After the outrage on social media, elders at Keene's Baptist church reportedly asked him to apologise for what they described as a "sinful" act.
Newsweek reported, He also lost $8,000 in sales over two weeks, as well as a potential employee who withdrew her application. Keene declined, saying he remained committed to his cultural identity and immigration beliefs. Officials said the couple eventually requested to be removed, but Keene insisted that elders at The Trails Church in Celina asked him to leave the congregation directly. Keene backed his post and told Blaze Media News he did not think apologizing for the post was "appropriate."
"As far as the content, I stand behind it. That's the policy position I stand behind," he was quoted as saying by Texas-based news outlet, Blaze News.
Keene also lost his gym membership at CrossFit Prosper, which cited a violation of its core values of inclusion. Gym owner Ken Williams told Newsweek that the decision was not political but based on Keene's own public statements that he had "nothing in common" with the Indian community in his town.
"We would take the same approach if a similar situation arose involving any other cultural or community group, as our commitment to inclusivity and respect applies to everyone," CrossFit Prosper gym owner Ken Williams told Newsweek.
Daniel Keene remains defiant
Despite being called out, Keene remains unapologetic. In interviews, he argued that his comments were about policy, not people.
"There's no racial animosity in the post, and there's no racial animosity for me at all personally," Keene told Newsweek.
"The objection is about the policy, the mass amount of immigration into specific areas, the sheer volume into small, dense areas," he added.
"It's not about skin colour or anything," Newsweek quoted the businessman as saying. "It's about what kind of country do you want to leave your kids, and do you have the right to object to the policies that are seemingly affecting my children? That was kind of my concern," he concluded.
