The Texas Republican shared a photo of South Asian students at a football game and claimed Americans were being displaced
A political row over admissions at the University of Texas has put the spotlight on a claim made by Bo French, the Republican nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission.
French faced widespread backlash after sharing a photo of South Asian students celebrating a Texas Longhorns football win. He claimed the picture showed how ‘Americans have been displaced by foreigners’ and accused universities of prioritising ‘foreigners over Texans’.
But official university data and Texas admissions rules tell a very different story.
90% of spaces reserved for Texans
UT Austin’s admissions rules give Texas students a clear advantage.
The university says 90 per cent of its undergraduate spaces are reserved for Texas residents. The remaining 10 per cent is available to students from other US states and international students.
Texas also has an automatic admission system. UT says it must automatically admit enough Texas students to fill 75 per cent of the spaces reserved for state residents.
So the idea that foreign students are broadly taking seats meant for Texans does not match how UT’s admissions system works.
International students make up a small share
UT Austin had around 55,000 students in fall 2025. Texas residents made up 80.5 per cent of the university’s total student population, while another 10.2 per cent came from elsewhere in the US.
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International students accounted for 5,140 students, or about 9.3 per cent of the total student body.
The university also received more than 90,000 applications for its fall 2025 freshman class. Applications from Texas students rose 12 per cent, while applications from outside Texas jumped 48 per cent.
The students in French’s post
There is another major problem with French’s argument.
You cannot tell whether someone is a foreign national simply by looking at them.
The students in his post were photographed cheering at a football game. The picture itself says nothing about their citizenship or immigration status. Some of the students identified in reports are American citizens.
More Asian students does not mean more foreign students
The growing number of Asian students at UT also does not automatically mean the university is admitting more foreign nationals.
Texas has a large and growing Asian American population. More Asian American students on Texas campuses can reflect the state’s changing population and the number of Asian American students graduating from Texas schools.
It is also important to separate race from nationality. An Asian American student can be a US citizen, a Texan or both.
Since the US Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on affirmative action, public universities cannot use race itself as a factor in admissions. UT says it looks at factors including academic performance, coursework, achievements and other parts of an applicant’s record.
French faces bipartisan backlash
French’s comments have also drawn criticism from both sides of the political aisle.
US Senator John Cornyn criticised the remarks, while Republican state lawmakers also pushed back. State Representative Lacey Hull defended the students, writing: ‘This post breaks my heart. I see college kids cheering on their football team. I see Texans.’
Governor Greg Abbott also pointed to college football as something that brings Texans together, although he did not directly condemn French.
French has continued to defend his comments.
But UT’s own numbers and admissions rules do not support his claim that foreigners are taking Texas students’ places.