Stop AAPI Hate Report: Share of Anti-Asian Hate Acts Carrying Anti-Immigrant Hostility Rose to 62% Over Three Years
The proportion of anti-Asian hate acts reported to Stop AAPI Hate that include anti-immigrant hostility has risen sharply over three years, from 42 percent in 2023 to 62 percent in the first half of 2026, according to a report the advocacy coalition released on October 14. The report, "License to Hate: Anti-Asian Racism in an Era of Anti-Immigrant Politics," analyzes hate act reports submitted to the coalition's reporting center between January 1, 2023 and June 30, 2026.
The report finds that offenders are increasingly using language that mirrors the current administration's xenophobic political rhetoric and policies, including threats of deportation. Among hate acts involving anti-immigrant hostility, the share including threats of a physical attack or actual physical harm rose from 13 percent in 2023 to 27 percent in the first half of 2026, while the share involving immigration-status policing — such as threatening to call ICE or demanding proof of immigration status — rose from 3 percent to 13 percent over the same period. The report identifies three rising anti-immigrant narratives: exclusion, casting Asian people as outsiders who do not belong, which appears in 87 percent of hate act reports with anti-immigrant hostility; societal threat, framing Asian people as dangers to the nation, economy or social order; and immigration status policing.
Cases cited in the report include several involving Chinese Americans. In 2024, a Chinese woman in New York was told by a man who leaned toward her face while she walked to a train station, "I can't wait until Trump gets reelected so you all can go back to where you came from." In 2025, a Chinese man in Hawai'i flying a recreational drone was forcibly stopped and detained for 20 minutes by two men who claimed to be military personnel but refused to show ID, and was repeatedly called a "Chinese spy." In 2026, a Chinese woman in California was confronted by a driver who accelerated toward her at a pedestrian crossing and, as she called 911, said, "Show me your green card. You are an illegal immigrant," and tried to grab her phone.
"Hate thrives when leaders give it permission to," said Cynthia Choi, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action. "Our research makes clear that Trump's anti-immigrant agenda is emboldening people to commit acts of anti-Asian racism. From threats of physical harm to threats to call ICE, we are increasingly seeing offenders of anti-Asian hate acts parrot Trump and his political allies' xenophobic rhetoric and policies to intimidate, harm, and enact violence against Asian people, including U.S. citizens." Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and executive director of the AAPI Equity Alliance, said about 65 percent of the Asian population in the United States are immigrants, the highest share of any major racial group, and that political rhetoric, policies and hate acts reinforce one another in a "trifecta of anti-Asian hate."
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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