Mark Mitchell, CEO of a leading US polling firm, Rasmussen Reports, has criticised the H-1B visa programme, saying he wants to launch a consultancy to "de-Indianise" American companies. His comments come amid renewed scrutiny of foreign tech workers under Trump's second term.

Mark Mitchell claimed senior H‑1B developers at tech firms like Apple are 'economically the same as 10 undocumented workers'. (Image: File)
Mark Mitchell, the CEO of Rasmussen Reports—one of America's top polling company—has taken his attacks against H-1B visas to an all new level. Mitchell says he plans to "de-Indianise" US companies and is willing to start a consultancy firm towards that end.
The H-1B programme, through which American tech companies hire foreign-born talent, has faced increasing scrutiny and crackdown in the second Donald Trump presidency. Indians are the major beneficiaries of the H-1B system, getting over 70% of the 85,000 granted annually.
"I have never in my life wanted anything more than this: To build a new corporate consultancy helping major firms de-Indianize," posted Mark Mitchell on X on December 10.
"I would work until I drop dead," Mitchell said, responding to a person who commented on the post.
The post came even as the MAGA crowd bayed for a curtailment of the H-1B programme, which is used to hire talent unavailable in the US. A section of Americans see it as a threat to employment, and have been projecting Indians, the most productive and assimilated of immigrants, in a negative light.
"When you reach the point that the most-educated, most taxpaying, lowest violent crime, zero single mothers group is the one you hate the most, it is pretty clear that YOU are the personification of America's present-day dysfunction," commented Kartik Gada on Mitchell's post. Gada is a seasoned professional with executive experience in tech, investment banking, venture capital, and hedge funds, and has also taught finance, technology, and economics at Stanford University.
Mitchell's post on him wanting to start a corporate consultancy to "de-Indianise" US companies came just days after he said sending back senior techies on H-1B should be a priority.
"Every single H-1B, you know, senior developer at Apple that we send back, that's the equivalent economically probably of deporting 10 illegal aliens. So I don't know why we didn't do that yesterday. And the idea, yes, a lot of these people are entry-level, but a lot of them are making a tonne of money," Mitchell told American political strategist and media executive Steve Bannon, on Real America's Voice News on December 8.
What makes Mitchell's threats serious is because he is the CEO of Rasmussen Reports, which is among the top American pollsters.
Rasmussen Reports, founded in 2003 by pollster Scott Rasmussen, is a prominent American public opinion polling firm known for its daily national tracking surveys on politics, economics, and consumer sentiment.
The firm gained acclaim for accurately predicting Donald Trump's 2016 popular vote margin and was ranked among the most precise pollsters in the 2024 election cycle, though critics like FiveThirtyEight have dropped it from averages due to a consistent right-leaning bias and lower transparency scores.
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Published By:
Anand Singh
Published On:
Dec 11, 2025

5 hours ago

