Kamal Ghorui
An anti-India US reporter says she was assaulted by protesters while covering a demonstration in Minneapolis. Conservative reporter Savannah Hernandez was assaulted while filming an anti-ICE protest outside the Whipple ICE Facility. According to witnesses, a group of demonstrators surrounded her, shoved her, and knocked her to the ground. After the confrontation, Hernandez got back on her feet and continued reporting. She says she will report the issue to the police. Hernandez acknowledged the incident on X and said: “I was just brutally assaulted by multiple people outside of the Whipple ICE facility in Minneapolis. Multiple people swung on me and a grown man pushed me to the ground. My glasses are broken. ANTIFA still alive and well. I’m talking with police about pressing charges.”Things have already been tense in the Minneapolis region following the recent shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents, incidents that were caught on camera and condemned by local leaders and high-profile Democrats.Hernandez has previously been at the centre of controversy over her reporting on immigration and cultural change in the United States. Earlier this month, she posted about visiting a Hanuman temple in Frisco, Texas. She shared an image from inside the temple and said she was “in shock” to see that an Indian temple in Texas had a board with “blessings for ‘job visas’” written on it.In another post, she explained the purpose of her visit, stating: “Texans have been saying that their state is starting to look unrecognizable, so I went to North Texas to go check it out. From streets named ‘Ali Akbar’ to residents stating that Texas is now ‘mini-India”. Her documentary is linked to Turning Point USA and is focused on the rapid growth of Indian and Muslim communities in Republican dominated areas such as Frisco, Plano, and Irving. It included interviews with residents concerned about cultural changes, immigration, and the increasing visibility of South Asian traditions, including festivals like Holi and the rise of cricket fields and religious infrastructure. Her reporting also included a critique of the H1-B visa system, which allows highly-skilled foreigners to work in the US. Her reporting aligns with the conservative ideology that Indians are replacing Americans in their own country by taking their jobs and working at much lower wages, leading employers to prefer hiring them.Hernandez was accused of targeting a religious space, while MAGA supporters used her reporting to push anti-immigrant and anti-Indian narratives.Frisco, in particular, has become a flashpoint in debates over immigration and identity, with heated city council discussions in the past few weeks. Online hate targeting Indians in the US has more than doubled between 2023 and 2025.
