A new poll from AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that most Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) adults believe the US is no longer a great country for illegal immigrants. The poll, which surveyed 1,075 US adults who are Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders, revealed that about half of AAPI adults say they or someone they know have been detained or deported within the last year, started carrying proof of immigration status or US citizenship, or significantly changed their routines because of immigration status.
Immigration Policies and AAPI Adults
The findings come after more than a year of immigration crackdowns. The poll indicates that the Trump administration’s aggressive approach may be changing the way some people in immigrant-heavy communities see the US itself. AAPI adults are one of the country’s fastest-growing demographics, and most AAPI adults in the US were born outside the country.
Khoa Tran, a 27-year-old math teacher from San Antonio, Texas, came to the US from Vietnam in 2015 at age 15. He gained citizenship four years later and sponsored his wife from Vietnam in 2023. Tran became concerned when his social media feed kept bringing up posts about the importance of carrying documentation, even for legal immigrants. “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.
Cultural Identity and American Identity
AAPI adults are likelier to say their family’s ancestry or country of origin is “extremely” or “very” important to their personal identity, compared to being an American. Just over half of AAPI adults say their family’s ancestry or country of origin is important to who they are, while 44% say this about their American identity.
Abigail Jeyaraj, a 22-year-old from South Hadley, Massachusetts, was born in Texas to Indian parents. She identifies herself as not just “American” but 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.”
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
