WASHINGTON (AP) – After months of aggressive immigration enforcement by the Trump administration, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults are increasingly likely to have negative views of President Donald Trump’s handling of immigration, a new AAPI Data/AP-NORC poll finds.
Roughly 7 in 10 AAPI adults nationwide disapprove of President Trump’s approach to immigration, according to AAPI Data and AAPI research. Associated Press-NORC Public Affairs Research Center,increase from 58% in March. The new poll also found that a solid majority of AAPI adults say the Republican president’s efforts to deport immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally go too far, and majorities oppose some specific tactics used by the administration, such as using the military or National Guard to carry out arrests and deportations.
The findings were brought by the Federal Immigration Service Expand enforcement in Chicago areaMore than 1,000 migrants have been arrested since last month. The escalation in Chicago is just one part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to expedite deportations, which has been a top priority for the president since taking office at the beginning of the year.
This approach doesn’t seem to be catching on well among AAPI adults, a diverse and rapidly growing group many born outside the United States. Even among foreign-born AAPI adults, who tend to be more conservative, they are largely dissatisfied with the president’s handling of immigration.
Joye Meyer, 25, was born in China and adopted as a child. The Miami resident, who identifies as a Democrat, supports secure borders, but President Trump’s recent actions have her wondering what would happen if she suddenly lost her citizenship.
“When you’re at risk of having your home, your family, your friends, everything you know stripped away for something like a professional thing, which some people are going through, that’s really heartbreaking,” Meyer said, adding that she felt Trump’s approach was “punitive.”
Most people think President Trump has gone too far on immigration.
AAPI adults are particularly likely to believe that President Trump has crossed an immigration line. Roughly two-thirds of Americans say President Trump has gone too far when it comes to deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally, while about 6 in 10 black and Hispanic adults say he has gone too far. Another AP-NORC poll Conducted in September. The survey found that fewer than half of white adults think President Trump has overstepped his immigration policy.
The findings, along with growing disapproval of Trump on immigration among AAPI adults, suggest that the president’s handling of the issue over the past few months may have made some people uncomfortable. Karthik Ramakrishnan, executive director of AAPI Data and a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, said some people may feel that there are “significant differences in what policy support looks like in theory and how it is deployed.”
Immigration issues are often featured in 38-year-old Peter Lee’s local news. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center operates in Tacoma, Washington.. He believes President Trump is rushing to meet the deportation quota without mercy.
“First of all, there doesn’t seem to be a clear strategy for what he’s doing on immigration enforcement other than pure numbers. Second, his directives seem to be coming from a gut feeling rather than being based in fact,” said Lee, a Korean-American Democrat. “I think the fact that he’s deporting people to third countries where they’re not from is ridiculous.”
Foreign-born AAPI adults are more likely to support President Trump on immigration and crime
American-born AAPI adults and foreign-born AAPI adults alike are likely to think that President Trump is going too far on immigration policy overall. However, opinions are more divided on issues related to illegal immigration.
Just over half of foreign-born AAPI adults, who tend to be older and more conservative than other AAPI adults, support deporting immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally and are charged with misdemeanors, compared to 41% of U.S.-born AAPI adults. AAPI adults born outside the U.S. are also more likely than U.S.-born AAPI adults to support deporting all immigrants in the country illegally.
Ramakrishnan added that more than half of AAPI adults are foreign-born, and American-born AAPI adults “may be less familiar with what it takes to maintain status.”
Tyrone Tai, 65, was born in Jamaica and has homes in Tampa and Lauderhill, Florida. Half Chinese and half Jamaican, he moved to New York City with his parents when he was 12 years old. He recalls how his parents struggled but eventually obtained U.S. citizenship. He suggested that President Trump is “not going far enough” when it comes to arresting people who have “crossed the line.”
AAPI adults born outside the U.S. are more likely than U.S.-born AAPI adults to support President Trump’s handling of immigration, but they do not rate him particularly highly on this issue. They are also more likely to support the president’s response to crime, suggesting that the president’s efforts to link illegal immigration to crime may resonate with some in this group.
Most AAPI adults oppose workplace attacks and National Guard involvement
Some of the Trump administration’s tactics are particularly unpopular among AAPI adults, polls have found. For example, about 6 in 10 AAPI adults oppose carrying out large-scale immigration enforcement in areas with large immigrant populations, deploying the military or National Guard to make arrests and deportations, detaining immigrants in the workplace, and allowing staff to wear face coverings during arrests.
Michael Ida, 56, of Honolulu, is disturbed by videos of ICE agents wearing masks and snatching people at work and on public streets. Ida, a pro-independence Christian, believes that some immigrants who are in the country illegally deserve to stay.
“When it comes to justice versus mercy, we should err on the side of mercy. That’s very worrying to me,” Ida said. “I feel like traveling outside of Hawaii, especially as an Asian American, is a little bit scary.”
But Tai insists ICE officers should be allowed to wear masks.
“Those poor ICE agents, they’re out there doing their job and people are basically threatening their families. That shouldn’t be happening,” Tai said.
Ida, who is half Korean and half Japanese, sees similarities to World War II, when the U.S. government started concentration camps in 1942. Japanese Americans left their homes to internment camps.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. There are echoes of what happened in the past.”
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The poll of 1,027 U.S. adults who are Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders was conducted from September 2-9, 2025 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based Amplify AAPI panel, which is designed to be representative of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 5.0 percentage points.
