16/09/2025
A research brief from the UCLA Asian American Studies Center highlights how the United States’ hostile immigration laws impact the Asian community.
Under Trump, the number of Asians arrested by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has seen a dramatic increase. For the months of February to May, the total number of Asians arrested nearly tripled from 2024 levels, from under 700, surging to nearly 2,000.
The states with the most arrests were California (19%), Texas (11%), and New York (11%). The countries where most immigrants were from include China (30%), India (26%), and Vietnam (15%). Note, this data does not include the 300+ Korean nationals who were detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai-LG plant in Georgia earlier this month.
Things are not expected to improve in the near future.
“We expect to see a dramatic increase in the number of Asians arrested in the latter half of 2025. This will be driven by the Trump administration’s effort to ramp up the number of ICE arrests exponentially to reach its target of one million deportations per year,” the research brief notes. “So far, ICE arrests have disproportionately impacted and harmed Latino communities, who have been subjected to extensive racial profiling. This will likely change because Asians are 16% of the estimated number of undocumented immigrants and 25% of the non-citizen immigrants, but they made up less than 3% of those arrested during the first few months of the Trump Administration. The predicted increase may very well be accompanied by a resurgence in anti-Asian xenophobia.”
