Overview
- A joint AP-NORC and AAPI Data poll of 1,075 AAPI adults finds about six in ten believe the U.S. used to be great for immigrants but is not anymore.
- Roughly half of respondents say they or someone they know in the past year faced detention or deportation, began carrying proof of legal status, changed travel plans, or altered daily routines because of immigration enforcement.
- Federal judges this month blocked a proposed visa fee increase and a policy that would have delayed or denied final decisions for applicants from 39 countries, but those rulings have not erased reported community anxiety.
- The poll shows variation across subgroups, with about half of South Asian adults knowing someone who started carrying proof of status compared with about four in ten AAPI adults overall, and many legal immigrants and naturalized citizens saying they feel their status is being questioned.
- AAPI adults strongly value ancestral heritage and cultural mixing, and the survey suggests that growing fear about enforcement could reshape family travel, work and civic life and raise longer term concerns about the U.S. as a place of opportunity.