The “hiring department” and “interviewers” encompass a wide variety of people to include;

About 70% of the HR Department
Management pilots
Numerous XCAs, Instructors, Training Center Personnel
Retired Capts, many of which are now part time employees
IBT members on the hiring committee

Point being that this team is not made up of some evil, disconnected entity that is trying to pass disinformation or mess up the crew force. Nor is it a group of HR folk that don’t know what makes up a good crew member. Every candidate is screened by HR, but the majority of the interviews and screening involves crew members, past and present.

Those that participate regularly or attend the training that occurs a couple times a year know the situation with hiring of non US citizens. It is possible that a member or two of this group may have misstated the policies earlier this year.
But is is more likely that such rumors persist from misunderstanding or continued contrary statements that some wish to promote to create discontent.

I had a current XCA tell me that one of his OE students tell him that his class was 90% Aussies, since he heard it from an OE student it must be true. I have access to the class roosters, so I was able to check. Earlier this year, there was no class that had more then 20-30% Aussies and this being predominantly on the 74 fleet. We have yet to exceed 50% in any class.