Most AAPI adults think legal immigrants give the US a major economic boost: AP-NORC/AAPI Data poll

[October 14, 2024]  By TERRY TANG and LINLEY SANDERS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults are more likely than the overall U.S. population to view legal immigration as an asset to the country's economy and workforce, according to a new poll.

When it comes to the risks posed by illegal immigration, though, their views are similar to those of Americans overall.

About 8 in 10 AAPI adults say legal immigration to the U.S. is a “major benefit" contributing to economic growth, a survey released Monday by AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds. In comparison, around 4 in 10 Americans overall felt the same way in an AP-NORC poll conducted in March. Similarly, around three-quarters of AAPI voters say skilled expertise in science and technology is a major benefit of legal immigration, compared with about 4 in 10 Americans in March.

The polling results come as former President Donald Trump, with less than a month until Election Day, continues to focus on the threat of immigration in his presidential campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris. The Republican recently falsely claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had no money to help Hurricane Helene survivors because it was spent on programs for undocumented immigrants. During the presidential debate last month, Trump amplified a false rumor that Haitians living legally in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people's pets. The debunked claims led to bomb threats to schools and government buildings, and drew on a long history in the U.S. of maligning immigrant communities through their food.

Aldrin Villahermosa II, 25, and a registered independent in Tacoma, Washington, was “mad and annoyed” when he heard Trump target Haitians that way.

“Immigrants are always targeted for non-traditional foods they eat and now targeting them with domesticated animals brings a whole new level of depravity to all those claims,” Villahermosa said.

He also disagrees with the narrative that immigrants who are living in the U.S. illegally don’t contribute, or that they take jobs away from Americans.

“One of my really good friends from college is an undocumented immigrant. Currently, he’s a public school teacher, a job that doesn’t pay well but has an impact on future generations,” Villahermosa said. "He plays an important role in the U.S. economy, doing a job a lot of people are shying away from these days because it’s low paying and often not gratifying.”

But many AAPI adults view illegal immigration very differently. Only about 4 in 10 AAPI adults say immigrants who are in the country without legal permission contribute to economic growth, similar to the share of the general adult population who say the same. Similarly, about one-third of AAPI adults see immigrants who are living in the country illegally as providing expertise of skilled workers, which is on par with the views of Americans overall.

Just under half of AAPI adults say the federal government increasing security at the U.S.-Mexico border should be a “high priority.” About the same share say reducing wait times for green card, or permanent legal status, applications should be a top priority.

“What this indicates is that Asian Americans or AAPIs want to see solutions both on the border, but also on all the legal migration pathways,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder and executive director of AAPI Data.

Many members of Asian American groups — particularly Chinese, East Indians and Filipinos — are invested in the U.S. immigration system because they often grapple with yearslong waits to sponsor a family member or bring a worker on a special visa, he added.

Chinese migrant Li Kai aka Khaled, an ethnic Hui Muslim, studies for a Commercial Driving License in his apartment in Flushing, New York, May 3, 2024. Li Kai came to the U.S. with his wife and two sons seeking religious freedom and a better life. (AP Photo/Serkan Gurbuz, File)

Guann Su, 45, of Freeport, New York, came to the U.S. legally from Taiwan when he was a child and became a naturalized citizen in 1999. He wants to see other immigrants do things by the book like his family did.

“I’m not saying that all illegal immigrants are taking a shortcut and they are cheating, but I’m just saying that we must follow the rules for everybody," said Su, a Republican. "Because if we start making exceptions, that’s where the problems (are) going to start.”

He also believes immigrants who are not in the country legally are a major risk in overloading welfare and safety net programs and increasing crime in big cities. About half of AAPI adults and Americans overall say this about such programs, and about 4 in 10 think it's a “major risk” that immigrants who are living in the country without legal permission will commit crimes, although studies have indicated that immigrants are not more likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S.

On legal immigration, though, AAPI adults who identify with a political party are much more likely than Democrats and Republicans overall to see a major economic benefit. Around 9 in 10 AAPI Democrats say that contributions to economic growth are a “major” benefit of legal immigration, compared with about 6 in 10 Democrats overall. Similarly, about two-thirds of Republican AAPI adults think legal immigration is a major benefit for economic growth, compared with 3 in 10 Republicans overall.

Sophia Cole, 38, of St. Louis, Missouri, is a Republican who plans to vote for Trump. She agrees that legal immigrants tend to be very hardworking.

“That’s just what I’ve seen growing up — how hard the immigrant community works, how they’ve helped build our foundational cities … from the East to West Coast,” Cole says. “The work ethic, the drive to be American; they really capture the American dream more so than Americans themselves.”

Within the AAPI population, Harris has a slight edge over Trump in terms of who should be more trusted to address immigration issues. But part of that may be due to the fact that just a little over half of poll respondents identified as Democrats.

Su, however, trusts Trump to better handle immigration. He accused Harris and the Biden administration of not being “genuine” and not prioritizing the issue of illegal immigration until earlier this year.

Villahermosa, on the other hand, blames Congress for the lack of action. “I feel it's very much up to the will of Congress in terms of spending, allocation and allowing certain resources to be allocated to address immigration as a whole,” Villahermosa said.

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Tang reported from Phoenix.

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The poll of 1,123 U.S. adults who are Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders was conducted Sept. 3-9, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based Amplify AAPI Panel, designed to be representative of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander population. Online and telephone interviews were offered in English, the Chinese dialects of Mandarin and Cantonese, Vietnamese and Korean. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.

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