Some Asian American voters are critical of Donald Trump for his false claims about Haitian immigrants and their pets. Others distrust Kamala Harris's role in the face of irregular immigration.
Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) adults are more likely than the rest of the U.S. population to view legal immigration as an asset to the U.S. economy and workforce. United, according to a new survey.
However, when it comes to the risks posed by illegal immigration, their position is very similar to that of the rest of the country's population.
About 8 in 10 AAPI adults say legal immigration to the United States is an “important benefit” that contributes to economic growth, according to a survey conducted by AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. meet Monday.
By comparison, about 4 in 10 Americans expressed a similar stance during an AP-NORC poll conducted in March.
Similarly, about 75% of AAPI voters say science and technology skills are a big benefit of legal immigration, compared to about 40% of Americans surveyed in March.
The survey of 1,123 U.S. adults who are Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander was conducted Sept. 3-9.
Telephone and online interviews were conducted in English, Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese dialects, Vietnamese, and Korean. The margin of error is 4.7 percentage points.
A campaign issue
The results of the polls are released at a time when former President Donald Trump continues to focus his campaign on the risks of immigration with less than a month left until election day, in which he will face Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
Recently, the Republican falsely claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did not have money to help survivors of Hurricane Helene because it had been spent on programs for illegal immigrants.
During his presidential debate last month, Trump amplified a false rumor that Haitians living legally in Springfield, Ohio, they were eating the residents' pets.
Those debunked claims led to bomb threats at schools and government buildings, and were inspired by the United States' long history of smearing immigrant communities for their eating habits.
Aldrin Villahermosa II, a 25-year-old independent voter in Tacoma, Washington, said he was “angry and upset” when he heard the way Trump criticized Haitians.
“Immigrants are always criticized for their non-traditional foods, and criticizing them now with domestic animals is a new level of depravity to all these accusations,” denounced Villahermosa.
He also disagrees with the narrative that immigrants living in the United States illegally do not contribute or steal jobs from Americans.
“One of my best friends from college is an undocumented immigrant. He is currently a teacher in a public school, a job that does not pay much but has an impact on future generations,” Villahermosa said.
“He plays an important role in the U.S. economy, doing work that many people don't want to do these days because the pay is low and often unrewarding.”
Border security as a “high priority”
But many AAPI adults have a very different view of illegal immigration. Only about 4 in 10 of them say that immigrants who are in the country without legal authorization contribute to economic growth, a proportion similar to that of the general population who share that view.
Similarly, about a third of AAPI adults view immigrants living illegally in the United States as providing skilled worker expertise, which is consistent with the thinking of Americans in general.
Just under half of AAPI adults say beefing up security on the border with Mexico should be a “high priority” for the federal government. A similar proportion say reducing wait times for processing applications for a green card or permanent legal status should be a priority.
“This indicates that Asian Americans or AAPIs want to see solutions to border issues and pathways for legal migration,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder and CEO of AAPI Data.
The advice to “follow the rules”
Many members of Asian American groups – especially from China, eastern India and the Philippines – have a strong interest in the US immigration system because they often have to wait several years to sponsor a family member or bring in a worker. with a special visa, he added.
Guann Su, 45, of Freeport, New York, came to the United States legally from Taiwan as a child and was naturalized in 1999. He wants to see other immigrants do things the right way, just like his family did.
“I'm not saying that all illegal immigrants are taking a shortcut and cheating, but I'm just saying that we should all follow the rules,” said Su, who is a Republican. “Because if we start making exceptions, that's when the problems start.”
He also believes that immigrants who are not legally in the country are a significant risk in terms of overloading social assistance programs and contributing to increased crime rates in large cities.
About half of AAPI adults, and Americans overall, say the same about these programs, while about 4 in 10 say there is a “great risk” that immigrants living in the country illegally will legal to commit crimes, even though there are studies that indicate that immigrants are not more inclined to commit crimes compared to those born in the United States.
However, when it comes to legal immigration, AAPI adults who identify with a political party are much more inclined than Democrats and Republicans overall to see a large economic benefit.
About 90% of AAPI Democrats say contributions to economic growth are a “big” benefit of legal immigration, compared to about 60% of Democrats overall.
Similarly, about two-thirds of AAPI Republican adults think legal immigration is a big benefit to economic growth, compared to just 3 in 10 Republicans overall.
Sophia Cole, 38, of St. Louis, Missouri, is a Republican who plans to vote for Trump. He agrees that legal immigrants tend to be very good workers.
“It's what I saw growing up: how hard the immigrant community works, how they've helped build our major cities…from the east coast to the west coast,” Cole says. “Their work ethic, the desire to become Americans; they really capture what the 'American dream' means, more than the Americans themselves.”
Among the AAPI population, Harris has a slight advantage over Trump in terms of public confidence in addressing immigration issues. But part of this could be due to the fact that just over half of those surveyed said they were Democrats.
Su, however, trusts Trump more to deal with immigration. He accused Harris and President Joe Biden's administration of not being “authentic” and not prioritizing the issue of illegal immigration until this year.
Villahermosa, on the other hand, blames lawmakers for the lack of action. “I think it depends largely on the will of Congress, in terms of spending, allocation and allowing certain resources to be allocated to address immigration in general terms,” he said.