A newly released survey is painting a striking picture of how Asian American and Pacific Islander adults view the United States amid the current immigration climate — and the results suggest a significant shift in confidence about America as a destination for immigrants.
The poll, released Monday by AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that roughly half of AAPI adults say that either they personally, or someone they know, has experienced notable disruptions over the past year tied to immigration enforcement. Those disruptions include being detained or deported, beginning to carry proof of immigration status or citizenship, canceling travel plans, or making significant changes to daily routines.
The survey results arrive after more than a year of intensified immigration enforcement under the Trump administration — a crackdown that has sparked confrontations between protesters and enforcement officers and contributed to the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year.
AAPI adults represent one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in the country, and the majority were born outside the United States. The poll found that about 6 in 10 AAPI adults believe America was once a great country for immigrants but no longer holds that distinction. Only around 3 in 10 AAPI adults still view the U.S. as a welcoming place for immigrants, while just 5% say it was never a great destination for immigrants to begin with.
Despite this shift in sentiment, AAPI adults are more likely than the general U.S. population to view the blending of cultures and values from across the globe as a defining part of what makes America, America.
Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder and executive director of AAPI Data, underscored the gravity of the findings. “America’s success story has depended critically on the role of Asian Americans, but also immigrants in general,” he said. “When you have people who are already in this country, have been here for decades saying, ‘I’m not really sure that this is the best country anymore,’ that’s a warning sign.”
The effects of the administration’s immigration policies have reached even those with legal status. A proposed policy that would have significantly raised fees for certain visa categories was recently blocked by a federal court. Separately, another judge struck down a policy that had “categorically barred” immigrants from 39 countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East from receiving final decisions on applications for asylum, work permits, green cards, and citizenship.
Khoa Tran, 27, of San Antonio, Texas, arrived in the U.S. from Vietnam in 2015 at the age of 15 and became a citizen four years later. In 2023, he sponsored his wife to come from Vietnam. Last year, Tran grew increasingly concerned as his social media feed filled with posts urging even legal immigrants to carry documentation at all times — something the couple had not previously thought necessary.
“It seemed like we needed to do it. It’s literally become like a second form of identification in addition to the driver’s license,” Tran said.
He has also noticed that international students in his community have been postponing visits to family in Asia out of worry over their student visa status. “They’re just scared. They don’t know the law around that,” Tran said. “Better safe than sorry.”
The survey found that about half of South Asian adults — compared to roughly 4 in 10 AAPI adults overall — know someone who has begun carrying proof of legal status or citizenship in the past year. South Asian adults are considerably more likely than East Asian or Southeast Asian American adults to have been born outside the U.S. Ramakrishnan noted that many of those immigrants may hold green cards or have become naturalized citizens, yet still feel “like their presence and their status in this country is under question.”
The poll also revealed that AAPI adults are more likely to say their family’s heritage or country of origin is central to their personal identity than their American identity. Just over half of AAPI adults said family ancestry or country of origin is important to who they are, while 44% said the same about their identity as an American. That trend holds even among U.S.-born AAPI adults — about 59% said their family heritage is important to their identity, compared to 47% who said the same about being American.
By contrast, a separate AP-NORC poll conducted in April found that 55% of U.S. adults overall say being American is important to their identity, while only 37% said that about their family ancestry.
Abigail Jeyaraj, 22, of South Hadley, Massachusetts, was born in Texas to Indian parents who built their lives in the U.S. — a fact she says she never takes for granted. She describes herself not simply as “American” but as South Asian American.
“Especially as a South Asian woman, I’m very sensitive to the fact that I have opportunities that my mother and my grandmother, all the women before that didn’t,” Jeyaraj said. “I really try to honor that culture. I try to maintain really strong connections to my family in India.”
Soonho Kwon, 30, of La Mirada, California, was born in Korea and moved with his family to New Jersey when he was 8 years old. “I think I still feel more Korean. I came right around the age where I had very solid memories from growing up in Korea. My immediate family’s back there now,” Kwon said. “I’m a naturalized citizen. I’m committed to living here, but identity is a different question.”
The poll found that 73% of AAPI adults consider the mixing of cultures and values from around the world to be “extremely” or “very” important to the national identity of the U.S. — compared to 55% of U.S. adults overall in the April AP-NORC survey.
Jeyaraj, who grew up in the Dallas and Houston areas, said those cities gave her the chance to interact with people of many different racial and cultural backgrounds, an experience she credits with shaping her empathy. Current restrictions on immigration and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs have left her with mixed feelings about celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary this year.
“I’m proud we made it this far as a country,” she said. “You have recent actors who are trying to undo that progress. They maybe view it as restoring an ideal, but it’s removing so much work that powerful and influential people made to bring us toward an ideal of equality and justice.”
For Tran, who works as a math teacher, the milestone anniversary feels less meaningful. “I don’t think this country is ‘founded’ at some point in time. It just changes from one form to another,” he said. “Even the Native Americans (were) a long time here. I’m pretty sure that was more than 250 years.”
The poll surveyed 1,075 U.S. adults who identify as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander. It was conducted April 20–28 using a sample from NORC’s probability-based Amplify AAPI Panel, designed to represent the AAPI population. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. The poll is part of a larger ongoing project focused on the views of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders — groups that are frequently underrepresented in standard national surveys due to small sample sizes and limited language representation.
