A new report from Stop AAPI Hate paints a troubling picture of life for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the United States, showing that racism and discrimination remain deeply entrenched years after the surge seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Titled “Closing Doors, Widening Harm: Persistent Hate Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in an Anti-Immigrant Climate,” the third annual State of Hate report finds that nearly half of AA/PI adults in the U.S. experienced a hate act in 2025 because of their race, ethnicity or nationality. The data is based on a nationally representative survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago.
The numbers have barely shifted over time. The report notes that 53 percent of respondents reported hate incidents in 2024, 49 percent in 2023, and 49 percent again in 2025. Harassment and institutional discrimination continue to be the most common forms. For Pacific Islander adults, the situation has worsened, with reported hate rising from 47 percent in 2024 to 57 percent in 2025.
Beyond direct acts of hate, the report highlights the broader climate shaped by immigration policy and rhetoric. Around 53 percent of AA/PI adults said they or someone they know had been negatively affected by immigration policy changes or anti-immigrant sentiment in 2025 under the administration of Donald Trump. This cuts across both citizens and non-citizens, as well as those born in and outside the U.S.
Among the most common fears and experiences: 36 percent said they or someone they know had their immigration or citizenship status questioned or feared it could be revoked. Another 30 percent reported fears or experiences of arrest, detention or deportation, while 28 percent said they had considered leaving the United States altogether.
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The emotional toll is equally stark. Among those who experienced hate, nearly three-quarters reported feeling stressed, and one in four showed symptoms of moderate to severe depression or anxiety, significantly higher than among those who did not report such incidents.
“Our new research shows that Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the U.S. have continued to face alarmingly high levels of racism and discrimination for three consecutive years, fueled and normalized by relentless anti-Asian rhetoric and policies from political figures – especially Donald Trump and his allies,” said Cynthia Choi, Co-Founder of Stop AAPI Hate and Co-Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action. “While our survey has tracked this disturbing trend since 2023, our reporting center data, our previous research, and other sources show the surge began in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic – and anti-AA/PI hate has remained elevated since then because xenophobic, politically motivated attacks against our communities have continued year after year.”
Choi also pointed to a mix of political and social factors that have sustained these levels, including anti-Asian rhetoric during the pandemic, rising anti-Indian and anti-Chinese sentiment, and the amplification of xenophobic messaging during Trump’s 2024 campaign and current administration.
The report is anchored not just in data, but in lived experiences. One Indian woman in Georgia recounted: “[At a fast food restaurant], a lady came up right behind us mumbling, ‘murderers.’ We asked her if she was talking to us, to which her response was to yell at us, … ‘you’re murderers, you’re dirty murderers and rapists. I’m going to call ICE on your dirty -sses so you get deported back to India’’ (we are all U.S. citizens). … She … threw food at our feet as she walked out.”
A multiracial Pacific Islander man described online harassment that quickly escalated into threats tied to immigration enforcement: “I made a random comment on a [social media] post [related to the release of dolphins to the wild]. … Some guy posted that I should be locked up in concrete and do tricks. … This person then proceeded to post that they are reporting me to ICE (I’m a citizen), and I should get my papers ready. Is this 1930s Germany? I fear for my safety with the current ICE raids.”
A Korean woman in California shared a similar encounter in public: “I was waiting in line at [a fast food restaurant]. A woman started screaming at me, got inches from my face twice, and said she can’t wait until Trump deports me like he promised. She physically shoved me, so I left [the restaurant].”
For researchers behind the report, these incidents are part of a larger pattern.
“Asian and Pacific Islander people have long endured the ‘trifecta of violence’, whereby harmful ideologies like racism and xenophobia produce discriminatory policies – with those policies in turn emboldening both state actors and everyday individuals to commit acts of violence against those targeted by those ideologies,” said Stephanie Chan, Director of Data and Research at Stop AAPI Hate. “The trifecta of violence against AA/PI people has been particularly evident from the COVID-19 pandemic through today, as there has been an unrelenting stream of racist political rhetoric and xenophobic policies that has created an environment where acts of hate against our communities become more likely.”