Most Asian and Pacific Islanders detained by ICE had no criminal history, report finds

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests, detentions and deportations of Asian and Pacific Islander people have risen five to seven times compared to the previous administration, with nearly seven in 10 detentions involving people with no criminal history, according to a new analysis.

Stop AAPI Hate drew on government data obtained by the Deportation Data Project through a Freedom of Information Act request. Its report, which analyzed ICE data from Jan. 20, 2025, to March 10, 2026, documented 14,678 A/PI arrests, 13,455 detentions and 6,453 deportations. Those figures are roughly five, six and seven times higher, respectively, than under the Biden administration.

India and China accounted for the largest shares of A/PI arrests at 28% and 24%, respectively, each exceeding their share of the U.S. A/PI population. Uzbekistan, which makes up just 0.1% of the said population, represented 5% of arrests, the largest share of any country relative to its U.S. population. Pacific Islander arrests, detentions and deportations also increased, rising 22%, 30% and 29%, respectively, though at lower rates than Asian figures.

Alarmingly, among those detained, 68% had no criminal history. The share of no-conviction detentions climbed from 49% in January 2025 to 67% by March 2026, peaking in December 2025, when 1,256 detentions (76% of that month’s total) involved people with no conviction. A/PI detainees were held an average of about seven weeks longer than non-A/PI detainees. Researchers partly linked this to some home countries refusing to accept their return, with a typical detention involving stays at three separate facilities.

U.S. citizens have also been caught up in enforcement actions. ChongLy Thao, a Hmong American in Minnesota, was dragged from his home in his underwear in freezing temperatures at gunpoint by ICE agents who had no warrant and misidentified him. Meanwhile, Aliya Rahman, a Bangladeshi American also in Minnesota, was pulled from her car at knifepoint on her way to a traumatic brain injury appointment. She was cuffed, carried face down and forced to walk without her cane before being detained in a cell, without ever being asked for ID, informed she was under arrest or read her rights.

California, Texas and New York saw the most arrests of Asian people. “When our government ramps up these policies and encourages ICE to profile people, states with large Asian populations are heavily impacted,” said Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder and co-director of Stop AAPI Hate.

U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, who chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), said the trend is visible at the neighborhood level. “Predominantly Asian neighborhoods in New York — including Flushing, Elmhurst and Woodside — have seen a rise in masked, untrained agents detaining people solely based on their accent or appearance,” she noted, as per Documented.

Meng said CAPAC is working with local AAPI organizations nationwide to document the impact of federal immigration policies and has called for investigations into deaths of Asian immigrants in ICE custody.