A Florida city council member has drawn the ire of national Indian American groups, members of Congress and local residents after he published a stream of social media posts disparaging Indians in the United States and calling for their mass deportation.
Palm Bay council member Chandler Langevin, who was elected last year, lambasted Indians in posts on X, writing over about three weeks this fall that Indians come to the U.S. to “drain our pockets” and then return to India, “or worse … to stay.”
Outrage over his comments has upended the community and rippled beyond it. Since Sept. 29, residents and members of regional and national Indian American groups have flooded meetings at Palm Bay’s city council chambers, released statements denouncing his remarks and demanded his resignation.
Late Thursday, Langevin’s fellow council members voted 3-2 to censure him.“We’re all overwhelmed by everything,” Mayor Rob Medina, who is a member of the council, said during the meeting. “This nation was founded on immigrants. … We are all part of the very fabric of the flag, our banner, the United States of America.”
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National advocacy group Hindus for Human Rights has published a letter calling on Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) – who under Florida law has the power to suspend municipal officials – to remove Langevin from office. At an Oct. 2 council meeting, Bharat Patel, the former chair of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, said the council member’s remarks “echo some of history’s darkest rhetoric,” potentially even inspiring acts of violence. Prashant Patel, president of the Indian American Business Association and Chamber, told council members that Langevin’s actions are deeply polarizing.
In a phone call with The Washington Post on Wednesday, Langevin said he had aimed to start “discourse” about immigration policies. “I’m not the first Republican to make a mean tweet,” he said.
Palm Bay, on Florida’s eastern coast, has also sent a letter to DeSantis demanding that he remove Langevin from office. DeSantis’s office has not responded to the letter nor to The Post’s requests for comment.
Meanwhile, local and national Republican Party members, including the Brevard County Republican Party, Rep. Mike Haridopolos (Florida) and Sen. Rick Scott (Florida), have also denounced Langevin’s rhetoric.
“Even though Mr. Langevin is a registered Republican, his views are his, and his alone and in no way reflect the views of the Brevard Republican Party,” Brevard County Republican Party chairman Rick Lacey said in a statement. “We applaud the overwhelming majority vote of the Palm Bay City Council to request Governor DeSantis suspend Mr. Langevin from his office. … Hate like this has no place in our county.”
Langevin said the city council’s censure, calls for his removal and condemnation from fellow Republicans are “reprehensible” and represent a stifling of different viewpoints. He added that he has no intention of abdicating his seat.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
It’s unclear how many Indians live in Palm Bay, the largest city in Brevard County, which voted overwhelmingly for President Donald Trump in last year’s election. About 2 percent of the city’s roughly 135,000 residents identify as Asian, Census data show. There are no telltale signs of an established Indian community: The nearest Indian restaurant appears to be one town over, in Melbourne, and there appear to be no Indian grocers in the area.
About 5 million people in the U.S. identified as Indian in 2023, but little of that population lives in Florida. The population was just shy of 210,000 in the state as of 2024, according to AAPI Data, a nonpartisan research group focused on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
When asked why he homed in on the Indian community despite its slim presence in his city and state, Langevin told The Post he would respond in writing. He did not.
Langevin posted at least five derogatory comments about Indians on X beginning in mid-September, including one in which he accused Indians of “destroying the South.”
On Sept. 26, Langevin shared a post from the Department of Homeland Security about an Indian truck driver the agency accused of causing an accident that killed a woman. “Deport every Indian immediately,” he wrote in his repost.
The agency’s post came days after a separate incident in which a commercial truck driver, a California resident from India, was accused of killing three people on a Florida highway. DHS, DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) clashed over the incident, and the Trump administration soon toughened rules for noncitizens to obtain commercial driver’s licenses.
As Langevin posted anti-Indian remarks on social media, Medina, the city’s mayor, published a message to the city on Sept. 29, assuring residents that “words that demean or devalue others have no place in the Palm Bay we aspire to be.”
The city council held a special session the next evening, where residents packed the town hall forum to air concerns about Langevin.
Langevin was undeterred. He posted on X on Oct. 2: “Today is my birthday and all I want is for @realDonaldTrump to revoke every Indian visa and deport them immediately. America for Americans”
That evening, more than 100 residents – from Palm Bay and nearby cities in central Florida – filled a city council meeting where members voted 4-1 to send a letter to the governor requesting Langevin’s suspension. (Langevin voted against it.)
Over 75 people signed up to speak. Most delivered blistering rebukes of Langevin and passionate defenses of the Indian community in Florida and across the nation.
Resident Jignesh Patel pointed to the upcoming Diwali holiday, celebrated in many parts of India and by the Indian diaspora: “Diwali is known as the festival of lights, but it’s actually celebrating light over darkness. It’s celebrating knowledge and wisdom over ignorance,” he said, facing the city council member. “I say that once more: Knowledge over ignorance.”
A few meeting attendees defended the council member. Resident Joseph Murphy argued Langevin is protected by the First Amendment, and that efforts to censure and remove him represent a “leftist” tactic.
“I find it deeply troubling that elected Republican officials on this council would be spineless and compromising as to even consider capitulating to leftist cancel culture. I thought we had defeated this nonsense when we elected Donald J. Trump for the second time,” Murphy said. “I thought wrong because here we are, here we are conducting this pathetic leftist kangaroo court.”
After the backlash, Langevin posted a statement to X on Oct. 8 that he said “serves as an apology to those Patriotic Americans of the Hindu faith for the tone and for the absolutism of my statement, not however, for the message being conveyed.” (Not all Indians are Hindu.)
Langevin told The Post Wednesday that he had since had “good conversations” with some members of the community as they worked to “find common ground.”
And on Thursday, attendees crowded the council chambers once again. Some defended Langevin; most urged the elected officials to censure him.
Deputy Mayor Mike Jaffe walked into city hall wearing an Indian flag draped around his neck. “I am so tired of talking about this and hearing about this,” Jaffe said. He turned to Langevin: “Change your course, man.”