Trump's approval on immigration drops among AAPI adults, new AAPI
Data/AP-NORC poll finds
[October 15, 2025]
By TERRY TANG and LINLEY SANDERS
WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of aggressive immigration enforcement
measures from the Trump administration, Asian American, Native Hawaiian
and Pacific Islander adults are more likely to hold a negative view of
President Donald Trump's handling of immigration, a new AAPI Data/AP-NORC
poll finds.
About 7 in 10 AAPI adults nationwide disapprove of Trump's approach on
immigration, according to the survey from AAPI Data and The Associated
Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, an increase from 58% in
March. The new poll also finds that a solid majority of AAPI adults say
the Republican president has overstepped on deporting immigrants living
in the U.S. illegally, and most oppose several specific tactics used by
the administration, such as using the military and National Guard to
carry out arrests or deportations.
The findings come as federal immigration agents expand a crackdown in
the Chicago area, where more than 1,000 immigrants have been arrested
since last month. The escalation in Chicago is just part of a broader
effort by the Trump administration to boost deportations, which has been
a high priority for the president since he took office at the beginning
of the year.
This approach does not seem to be landing well among AAPI adults, a
diverse and rapidly growing group where many were born outside the U.S.
Even among foreign-born AAPI adults, who tend to be more conservative,
most disapprove of the president's handling of immigration.
Joie Meyer, 25, was born in China and adopted as an infant. The Miami
resident, who identifies as a Democrat, supports secure borders but
Trump's recent actions have made her wonder what would happen if she
suddenly lost her citizenship.
“If I was at risk of like being stripped away from my home, family,
friends, everything I knew because of like a technicality, which is what
some people are facing, that’s just heartbreaking,” Meyer said, adding
that she finds Trump's methods “punitive.”
Most think Trump has ‘gone too far’ on immigration enforcement
AAPI adults are particularly likely to think Trump has crossed a line on
immigration enforcement. About two-thirds say Trump has “gone too far”
when it comes to deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally,
compared to about 6 in 10 Black and Hispanic adults in a separate AP-NORC
poll conducted in September. In that survey, less than half of white
adults thought Trump had overstepped on immigration.
The finding, combined with AAPI adults' increased disapproval of Trump
on immigration, signals that the president's handling of the issue over
the past few months may have turned some people off. Some may be finding
“a big difference in terms of what policy support looks like in theory
and how it plays out," said Karthick Ramakrishnan, AAPI Data executive
director and researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.
Immigration is frequently in the local news for 38-year-old Peter Lee of
Tacoma, Washington, where there is an active Immigration and Customs
Enforcement detention center. He sees Trump as hastily meeting
deportation quotas without compassion.
“One, there doesn’t seem to be a clear game plan for what he’s doing in
terms of immigration enforcement other than just pure numbers. Second it
seems like his directives come from just gut, not fact-based," said Lee,
a Democrat, who is Korean American. “The fact that he’s deporting people
to third-party countries not of their origin, I think that it’s
ridiculous.”
Foreign-born AAPI adults likelier to approve of Trump on immigration
and crime
American-born and foreign-born AAPI adults are equally likely to think
Trump has overstepped on immigration overall. But they're more divided
on issues related to illegal immigration.
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Government officials watch protesters gathering in Chicago, Tuesday,
Oct. 14, 2025. (Anthony Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Just over half of foreign-born AAPI adults, who tend to be older and
more conservative than other AAPI adults, support deporting
immigrants living in the U.S. illegally who have been charged with
misdemeanors, compared to 41% of American-born AAPI adults. AAPI
adults who were born outside the U.S. are also more likely than
American-born AAPI adults to support deporting all immigrants who
are in the country illegally.
More than half of AAPI adults are foreign-born, Ramakrishnan said,
adding that American-born AAPI adults may be less “attuned in terms
of what it takes to maintain one’s status.”
Tyrone Tai, 65, who has homes in Tampa and Lauderhill, Florida, was
born in Jamaica. The half-Chinese and half-Jamaican immigrated with
his parents to New York City when he was 12. He recalls how they
struggled but eventually gained U.S. citizenship. He indicated Trump
has “not gone far enough” when it comes to arresting those who “jump
the line.”
AAPI adults who were born outside the U.S. are more likely than
American-born AAPI adults to approve of Trump's handling of
immigration, although they still don't rate him especially highly on
the issue. They're also more likely to approve of his handling of
crime, suggesting that the president's efforts to link illegal
immigration with crime may be resonating with some among this group.
Most AAPI adults oppose workplace raids and National Guard
involvement
Some of the Trump administration's tactics are particularly
unpopular among AAPI adults, the poll found. For example, about 6 in
10 AAPI adults oppose conducting large-scale immigration enforcement
operations in neighborhoods with high populations of immigrants,
deploying the military or National Guard to carry out arrests and
deportations, detaining immigrants at their workplaces, or allowing
agents to cover their faces during arrests.
Videos of ICE officers wearing masks and snatching people while they
are at work or on a public street has rattled Michael Ida, a
56-year-old resident of Honolulu. An independent and Christian, Ida
believes that some immigrants in the country illegally may deserve
to stay.
“When it comes down to justice or mercy, we should err on the side
of mercy. It’s very disturbing to me,” Ida said. “As an Asian
American especially, I feel like there’s a little bit of anxiety to
travel outside of Hawaii.”
Tai, however, says that ICE agents should be allowed to wear masks.
“Those poor ICE agents, they’re doing their job there and people are
basically threatening their families. That shouldn’t be,” Tai said.
Ida, who is half Korean and half Japanese, sees parallels with World
War II, when in 1942 the U.S. government began forcing Japanese
Americans from their homes and into incarceration camps.
“History doesn’t repeat but it rhymes. There’s kind of echoes of
what happened in the past.”
___
The poll of 1,027 U.S. adults who are Asian American, Native
Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders was conducted from Sept 2-9, 2025,
using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based Amplify AAPI
Panel, designed to be representative of the Asian American, Native
Hawaiian and Pacific Islander population. The margin of sampling
error for all respondents is plus or minus 5.0 percentage points.
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