{"id":436415,"date":"2026-09-15T08:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/436415\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T08:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:02:08","slug":"bo-french-fact-checked-are-foreigners-really-replacing-texan-students-on-ut-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/436415\/","title":{"rendered":"Bo French fact-checked: Are foreigners really replacing Texan students on UT campus?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Texas Republican shared a photo of South Asian students at a football game and claimed Americans were being displaced <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

French faced widespread backlash after sharing a photo of South Asian students celebrating a Texas Longhorns football win. He claimed the picture showed how \u2018Americans have been displaced by foreigners\u2019 and accused universities of prioritising \u2018foreigners over Texans\u2019.<\/p>\n

But official university data and Texas admissions rules tell a very different story.<\/p>\n

90% of spaces reserved for Texans<\/p>\n

UT Austin\u2019s admissions rules give Texas students a clear advantage.<\/p>\n

The university says 90 per cent of its undergraduate spaces are reserved for Texas residents<\/a>. The remaining 10 per cent is available to students from other US states and international students.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

So the idea that foreign students are broadly taking seats meant for Texans does not match how UT\u2019s admissions system works.<\/p>\n

International students make up a small share<\/p>\n

UT Austin had around 55,000 students in fall 2025. Texas residents made up 80.5 per cent of the university\u2019s total student population, while another 10.2 per cent came from elsewhere in the US.<\/p>\n

\"world\"More from World<\/p>\n

International students<\/a> accounted for 5,140 students, or about 9.3 per cent of the total student body.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The students in French\u2019s post<\/p>\n

There is another major problem with French\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n

You cannot tell whether someone is a foreign national simply by looking at them.<\/p>\n

The students in his post were photographed cheering at a football game<\/a>. The picture itself says nothing about their citizenship or immigration status. Some of the students identified in reports are American citizens.<\/p>\n

More Asian students does not mean more foreign students<\/p>\n

The growing number of Asian students at UT also does not automatically mean the university is admitting more foreign nationals.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It is also important to separate race from nationality. An Asian American student can be a US citizen, a Texan or both.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

French faces bipartisan backlash<\/p>\n

French’s comments have also drawn criticism from both sides of the political aisle.<\/p>\n

US Senator John Cornyn criticised the remarks, while Republican state lawmakers also pushed back. State Representative Lacey Hull defended the students, writing: \u2018This post breaks my heart. I see college kids cheering on their football team. I see Texans.\u2019<\/p>\n

Governor Greg Abbott also pointed to college football as something that brings Texans together, although he did not directly condemn French.<\/p>\n

French has continued to defend his comments.<\/p>\n

But UT’s own numbers and admissions rules do not support his claim that foreigners are taking Texas students’ places.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas Republican shared a photo of South Asian students at a football game and claimed Americans were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[151225,132,134,133,27167,55615,151224,537,8124,151223,2471],"class_list":["post-436415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-affirmative-action","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-bo-french","tag-international-students","tag-south-asian-students","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-railroad-commission","tag-university-of-texas-admissions","tag-ut-austin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}