“I can’t wait until Trump deports you like he promised,” screamed a customer at a fast food restaurant in Southern California to a Korean American woman before shoving her to the ground.
A multiracial Pacific Islander man reported to the web portal Stop AAPI Hate that someone online threatened to report him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and told him to “get his papers ready,” even though he is a U.S. citizen. “Is this 1930s Germany,” he questioned in his report.
An Indian American woman in Texas was giving a virtual public lecture when someone verbally attacked her during the Q&A. “She hurled insults at immigrants coming into her neighborhood and taking jobs and reminded us this was her home. She called immigrants ‘illegal’ and said we stole jobs, and forced people out of neighborhoods,” said the woman in her report.
Almost half of AAPI adults experienced an act of hate during the first year of Trump’s second term, according to Stop AAPI Hate’s third annual State of Anti-AA/PI Hate report released May 1. The report, titled: “Closing Doors, Widening Harm,” notes that in 2025, 44% experienced harassment, 23% experienced institutional discrimination, 13% experienced physical harm or contact, and 10% experienced property harm.
Trump is fanning flames of bias
The anti AAPI hate comes from the very top. On April 22, President Donald Trump posted a transcript of a Michael Savage podcast, in which the host called India and China “hellhole countries.” Savage equated immigrants from those countries as “gangsters with laptops.”
Trump was called out by several Asian American organizations for amplifying Savage’s remarks.
“The rant also included how Asian Americans are disloyal to this country and that we somehow fail to integrate into this country as Europeans have in the past,” said John C Yang, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice|AAJC.
“When we have a federal government that is not only failing to prevent hate incidents, but actively engaging in conduct and speech that incentivizes it, all Americans suffer,” said Yang, speaking at a May 1 American Community Media news briefing.
’Perpetual foreigners’
He drew parallels between current rhetoric and the anti-Asian hostility that escalated during the pandemic after Trump repeatedly referred to COVID-19 as the “China virus,” the “Wuhan flu” and “Kung flu.”
“The stereotype of Asian Americans being perpetual foreigners who could never become American has resurfaced, even though it has never gone away,” Yang said.
According to FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data, of the 5,810 race- and ethnicity-based hate crimes reported last year, 291 targeted Asian Americans, 243 targeted Sikhs, and 214 targeted Muslims. Thirty four hate crimes targeted Buddhists, 31 targeted Hindus and 20 targeted Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
A total of 833 hate crimes affected AANHPI communities.
Black people continue to remain the overwhelming majority of victims in bias-related crimes, with 2,792 hate crimes reported last year. Anti-Semitism also remains rampant: there were 1,395 hate crimes reported last year targeting Jewish people.
John C. Yang, president and executive director, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, discusses what state and local governments can do to support racial and religious minorities in this era of rising hate and discrimination.
Hate crimes Underreported
Advocates at the ACoM briefing stressed the figures represent only a fraction of actual incidents because hate crimes are significantly underreported.
Stephanie Chan, director of Data and Research at Stop AAPI Hate, noted that FBI data is incomplete because law enforcement agencies report hate crimes on a voluntary basis. No mandate to report hate crimes currently exists at the federal level.
Stop AAPI Hate partners with NORC at the University of Chicago and with Moonshot, which focuses on combating online violence and abuse, to track hate crimes and incidents, especially in online spaces. “By tracking both, we’re able to get a fuller, more nuanced picture of how AAPIs are being impacted by racism,” said Chan.
Only 22% of Asian Americans who have experienced a hate crime or incident actually report their case to a formal authority, said Chan. “They have little confidence that anything will be done if they report it.”
Stephanie Chan, Director of Data & Research, Stop AAPI Hate, shares data from a survey that has been conducted annually since 2023 on hate incidents and crimes targeting the AAPI community.
South Asian hate surges
Online hate against South Asians surged during Kamala Harris’ presidential bid, Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign, and as Usha Vance, wife of Vice President JD Vance, gained visibility, noted Chan.
Hate against the South Asian American community is hardly novel, said Sameer Hossain, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and Mannirmal Kaur, senior federal policy manager at the Sikh Coalition.
Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh American gas station owner in Mesa, Arizona, was the first target of hate post-9/11. Sodhi was mistaken for a Muslim because of his turban and beard. His killer, Frank Silva Roque, told friends before he shot Sodhi that he “wanted to go out and shoot some towel heads.”
Anti Sikh bias predates 9/11, said Kaur. “Sikhs have been experiencing hate-motivated violence in the US for over a century,” she said. Kaur pointed to an incident in Bellingham, Washington in 1907 in which angry mobs attacked Sikh mill workers and ultimately ran them out of town.
Mannirmal Kaur, Senior Federal Policy Manager, Sikh Coalition, discusses the importance of learning about other cultures and communities at a young age and how it creates more inclusive communities.
Attacking DEI
“Racism, bigotry, and xenophobia have featured prominently in mainstream politics and culture in new and alarming ways,” said Kaur. She noted that several bills have been introduced and passed around the country attacking the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Moreover, the Small Business Administration has barred non-citizens from applying for loans; roughly 26% of Sikh Americans are small business owners.
“Politicians continue to exploit myths like the myth of widespread non-citizen voter fraud. And the White House is attempting to end birthright citizenship. So the impact of these bad faith, bigoted policies and rhetoric are felt by immigrants and communities of color across the country, including Sikhs,” said Kaur.
Anti-Islam bigotry
Sameer Hossain, Managing Director, Muslim Public Affairs Council, discusses the growing dangers American Muslims are facing as a result of Trump’s war in Iran and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Hossain noted the fatal bigotry against Muslims post 9/11. As the US continued to grieve in the aftermath of terrorist attacks which killed almost 3,000 people, neo-Nazi Mark Stroman engaged in what he called “avowed retribution” in Texas, first killing grocery store owner Waqar Hassan on Sept. 15, 2001, and then gas station attendant Vasudev Patel on Oct. 4, 2001. Patel was Hindu.
Stroman also shot Rais Bhuiyan, a former Bangladeshi air pilot who was working as a cashier at a grocery store. Bhuiyan miraculously survived.
”Stroman shot Rais in the face with a shotgun at point-blank range. Years later, Rais would say that it felt like a million bees stinging his face,” recalled Hossain.
After he was shot by Stroman — who received the death penalty — Bhuiyan went on an international campaign to seek clemency for the perpetrator. ”As Rais said, ignorance is what led to those hate crimes. And mercy is the only way to cultivate a world without hate, a belief rooted in his Islamic faith,” said Hossain. Stroman was executed in 2011.
Hate incidents against Muslim Americans spiked again in 2023 amid the Israel-Palestine conflict and the current US-Israel-Iran war, said Hossain.
