Since the 1970s, May has been commemorated as AANHPI (Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander) Heritage Month. Some of the most significant reasons May was chosen to celebrate and honor Asian Americans include the arrival of the first Japanese immigrant in 1843 and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad by thousands of Chinese immigrants in 1869. This Spotlight Analysis provides a profile of AANHPI Americans and examines their views on contemporary U.S. immigration policies, including favorability of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and support for internment camps for undocumented immigrants.
A Profile of AANHPI Americans
Party Affiliation and Political Ideology
Around one-third of AANHPI Americans identify as either a Democrat (32%) or an independent (32%), with another two in ten identifying as Republican (20%) and 15% identifying with a third party or other (15%). AANHPI are more likely than all Americans to identify as Democratic (32% vs. 28%) and independent (32% vs. 26%) and less likely to identify as Republican (20% vs. 31%).
Nearly four in ten AANHPI Americans (39%) are politically moderate, followed by around three in ten who are liberal (32%) or conservative (29%). Similar to partisanship, AANHPI Americans are more likely than all Americans to be ideologically moderate or liberal, but less likely to be conservative.
Religious Affiliation and Christian Nationalism
Religiously, AANHPI Americans are almost evenly split between identifying as religiously unaffiliated (36%), Christian (33%), and non-Christian (30%). AANHPI are nearly twice as likely to identify as Protestant as they are to identify as Catholic (21% vs. 12%, respectively). Among non-Christian AANHPI, around one in ten identify as either Hindu (13%) or Buddhist (10%), another 4% as Muslim, and 2% as another non-Christian religion. Non-Christian and religiously unaffiliated identity is significantly higher among AANHPI Americans than the general population (30% vs. 6% and 36% vs. 28%, respectively).
Most AANHPI Americans qualify as either Christian nationalism Skeptics (39%) or Rejecters (37%), compared with less than two in ten who qualify as Sympathizers (15%) or Adherents (4%).[1] AANHPI are significantly less likely than all Americans to qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents (4% vs. 11%) or Sympathizers (15% vs. 21%), and more likely to qualify as Rejecters of Christian nationalism (37% vs. 27%), but the percentage of AANHPI Skeptics does not differ from all Americans (39% vs. 37%).
Education and Region
Two-thirds of AANHPI Americans (66%) have a four-year college degree or higher, including more than one-third who have a postgraduate degree (35%). AANHPI are nearly twice as likely as all Americans to have at least a four-year education (66% vs. 37%, respectively).
Nearly half of AANHPI Americans live in the Western region of the country (47%), followed by around two in ten who live in either the Northeast (21%) or the South (21%), and another one in ten in the Midwest (11%). AANHPI Americans are more likely than all Americans to live in the West (47% vs. 24%) or Northeast (21% vs. 17%), and less likely to live in the South (21% vs. 39%) or Midwest (11% vs. 21%).
Views on ICE and Their Actions
Favorability of ICE Officers and Their Impact on Public Safety
Nearly three-quarters of AANHPI Americans (72%) hold unfavorable views of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, including a slim majority (54%) who hold very unfavorable views, while less than one-quarter (23%) view ICE officers favorably.
Around seven in ten AANHPI Americans (69%) agree that “the surge of ICE officers in places like Minnesota are making our communities less safe,” while around one-quarter (27%) disagree with the statement.
AANHPI Americans are roughly 10 percentage points more likely than the general population to hold unfavorable views of ICE officers (72% vs. 62%) and to agree that ICE officers are making communities less safe (69% vs. 57%).
Views on ICE’s Aggressive Tactics
Nearly three-quarters of AANHPI Americans oppose allowing ICE officers to conduct surveillance and arrests at sensitive locations like schools, hospitals, places of worship, and social service locations (74%) and oppose ICE officers arresting and relocating undocumented immigrants to detention centers in states far from their home without allowing them to challenge their detainment in court (73%), while around two in ten (both 21%) favor such actions. These percentages are similar to those of all Americans (72% and 68%, respectively).
Less than three-quarters of AANHPI Americans (72%) agree that ICE officers should not be allowed to conceal their identity with masks or unmarked vehicles when arresting people, compared with less than one-quarter (23%) who disagree. AANHPI Americans are more likely than all Americans to agree (72% vs. 61%).
Views on Immigrants
About three-quarters of AANHPI Americans (74%) disagree with the “Great Replacement Theory,” or the idea that “immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background,” while two in ten (21%) agree.
A majority of AANHPI Americans (64%) agree that “the growing number of newcomers from other countries strengthens American society,” compared with around one-third (33%) who disagree.
Compared with all Americans, AANHPI Americans are more likely to disagree with the “Great Replacement Theory” (74% vs. 62%) and to say immigrants strengthen American society (64% vs. 54%).
Views on Immigration Policy and Immigrant Rights
Similar to all Americans, most AANHPI Americans agree with the statement “we should provide refuge for people who come to the U.S. if they are in serious danger in their home country” (74%) and agree that immigrants, regardless of legal status, should have the right to challenge their deportation in court (66%).
An interesting finding considering the use of internment camps against Japanese Americans during the Second World War, only 53% of AANHPI Americans disagree with the statement “the federal government should detain immigrants who are in the country illegally in internment camps until they can be deported,” a significant decline from 70% in November 2024. AANHPI Americans do not differ from all Americans in this view.
[1] To measure Christian nationalism, PRRI used a battery of five questions based on respondents’ answers to (1) The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation, (2) U.S. laws should be based on Christian values, (3) If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore, (4) Being Christian is an important part of being truly American, and (5) God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society. Each respondent receives a composite score on the Christian nationalism scale (with a range of 0 to 1) and is then assigned to one of the four groups. For more information about how measures are constructed and Christian nationalism more generally, please see our previous reports: A Christian Nation? Understanding the Threat of Christian Nationalism to American Democracy and Culture, Support for Christian Nationalism in All 50 States: Findings from PRRI’s 2023 American Values Atlas, and Christian Nationalism Across All 50 States: Insights from PRRI’s 2024 American Values Atlas.
