AAPI adults mostly think Trump has done more harm than good on immigration, new poll finds

WASHINGTON– Most Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders believe President Donald Trump has done more harm than good on the issue of immigration and border security during his second term, according to a new AAPI Data/AP-NORC poll.

About 6 in 10 AAPI adults say Trump has harmed immigration and border security “a lot” or “a little,” according to the survey from AAPI Data and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, compared with about 4 in 10 U.S. adults in a January AP-NORC survey. About two-thirds of AAPI adults — who are generally more likely to be Democrats than U.S. adults overall — also believe Trump has “gone too far” when it comes to deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, compared to about half of Americans overall.

The Trump administration has instituted sweeping immigration measures since taking office, but the past two months have been particularly tumultuous. Last January, Trump suspended immigrant visa processing for citizens of 75 countries. Arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border have fallen dramatically, but the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests and detentions has skyrocketed. As of December 2024, the number of daily detentions averaged just under 40,000 people. Last month, there were around 70,000.

The investigation was conducted following the January fatal shootings by ICE agents of two U.S. citizens and the arrest of a Hmong American — clad only in his underwear — in freezing temperatures.

These immigration crackdowns have hit close to home for Jeff Ugai, who lives in Hawaii. On his island, Kauai, nearly four dozen people were arrested in November during immigration raids.

“It seems like the current administration’s efforts are more about cruelty than about building an immigration system that makes sense for this country,” said Ugai, 39, a Democrat.

AAPI adults, one of the fastest-growing demographic segments in the United States, generally do not support Trump’s tough tactics on immigration, according to the poll. A separate AAPI Data/AP-NORC survey last fall found that dissatisfaction with Trump’s approach to immigration had increased compared to earlier in the year.

“We also see opposition to policies that may not involve violence or violation of due process, but nevertheless involve things like banning immigrants from entire countries where there is a history of visa overstays or deporting immigrants married to U.S. citizens,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder and executive director of AAPI Data.

In this poll, about 4 in 10 AAPI adults believe that deporting immigrants living in the United States illegally should not be a priority for the U.S. government, an increase from about a third just after Trump took office. About a third of AAPI adults now say these evictions should be a moderate priority, and only about 2 in 10 say they should be a high priority.

Fran Peace, 75, of Oroville, Calif., still considers the illegal deportation of immigrants here a high priority. But the Japanese American retiree disagrees with the idea of ​​arresting people based on “stereotypes” like their appearance or accent. She is also open to a citizenship process for those who have lived here for years and have not committed any crimes.

“I don’t think you should be forced to go back automatically, but the laws don’t say that,” Peace said. “If you’re illegal, you go home. But I think concessions should be made for people who have been here for a long time.”

Most AAPI adults, 73 percent, have a “somewhat” or “very” unfavorable view of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.

AAPI Republicans have a much less negative view of the agency than AAPI adults overall, with only about a third saying they have a negative view of ICE. But only about a quarter of Republicans had an unfavorable view of ICE in a February AP-NORC survey.

There is also widespread opposition to several hardline immigration policies, with about 6 in 10 saying they oppose large-scale immigration enforcement in neighborhoods with high immigrant populations, and about 7 in 10 opposing allowing immigration officers to cover their faces when arresting people.

Banning face coverings would be tantamount to body cameras, “helping to hold people accountable,” Ugai said.

The AAPI adult population is divided on whether illegal immigrants here have a significant impact on social resources and crime. About 4 in 10 AAPI adults believe illegal immigrants in the United States pose a “major risk” of overburdening welfare and welfare programs. A similar proportion consider this a “minor risk”. Only about a quarter of them consider “there is no risk”.

Asked whether illegal immigrants will commit crimes, about a third of AAPI adults consider this a “major risk,” while about half think it is a “minor risk.” Only 15% say it is “no risk at all”.

Peace credits Trump with reducing crime like drug trafficking because before his second term, the United States “virtually had open borders.”

But Daniel Kim, 65, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, believes immigrants pose little risk in terms of crime.

A Democrat and Korean American, he previously volunteered at a church helping refugees by providing food and donations. He stopped attending his own evangelical church due to church leaders’ insistence on remaining apolitical.

“Church leaders simply could not connect the dots or fail to think through the issues surrounding the treatment of foreigners in our country,” Kim said.

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The survey of 1,197 Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander adults was conducted February 2-9, 2026, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based Amplify AAPI panel, designed to be representative of the Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.

This poll is part of an ongoing project exploring the views of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, which are not typically highlighted in other surveys due to small sample sizes and lack of linguistic representation.