AAPI adults say Trump immigration crackdown has made U.S. more hostile

For many Asian American and Pacific Islander adults, President Donald Trump’s tougher immigration crackdown has moved beyond policy and into everyday life. In a new AP-NORC and AAPI Data poll released June 15, 2026, about half of AAPI adults said they or someone close to them had been detained or deported, forced to carry proof of immigration status or citizenship, changed travel plans, or otherwise altered routines because of enforcement.

The survey captured a community feeling the strain of an intensified immigration system after more than a year of crackdowns, clashes between protesters and enforcement officers, and rising fear in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods. AP-NORC said the AAPI polling series was built to correct the historic underrepresentation of AAPI communities in public-opinion research, making the results a rare national measure of how those pressures are changing family decisions and a sense of belonging.

The poll found that just 1 in 3 AAPI adults viewed the United States as a great place for immigrants, while 64% said it used to be a great place for immigrants but is not anymore. That split matters politically because AAPI adults are one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in the country and most were born outside the United States.

The same release showed how deeply immigration enforcement has seeped into daily routines. Forty-one percent said they had started carrying proof of immigration status or citizenship, or knew someone who had, compared with 25% of U.S. adults overall. Thirty-four percent said they or someone they knew had changed travel plans because of immigration status, compared with 18% of U.S. adults overall. Those figures suggest the crackdown has reached far beyond undocumented immigrants and into families with legal status as well.

At the same time, the poll showed that AAPI adults remain strongly attached to core American ideals. Eighty percent said the American dream is a defining part of the nation’s identity, 79% pointed to a democratically elected government, and 73% valued the mixing of cultures and values from around the world. But one in 3 said politics was the main thing dividing Americans, underscoring how immigration has become part of a broader argument over what the country stands for.

The answers also revealed important differences in how AAPI adults draw the line on citizenship and national belonging. While 81% said children born in the United States to parents here legally on work visas should be citizens, support fell to 56% for children born to parents on tourist visas and 54% for children born to parents in the country illegally. In another sign of uneasy patriotism, half said the United States is one of the greatest countries in the world, 34% said other countries are better, and 18% said the United States stands above all others.

Earlier AAPI Data polling in February 2026 found 73% of AAPI adults held unfavorable views of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 67% said Trump had gone too far in deporting immigrants living in the United States illegally, and 63% said he had gone too far in restricting legal entry. Karthick Ramakrishnan of AAPI Data said the results should be read as a warning sign for people who have spent decades in the country and are now questioning whether America still lives up to its promise.