ICE arrests of Asian Americans in California increased by more than 1,000%

Mathew Miranda, The Sacramento Bee on Aug 14, 2026

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Immigration arrests of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in California increased more than tenfold in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to a new analysis by the University of Southern California Equity Research Institute.

The analysis found that the AAPI Californians were involved in one of every 10 arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2025. That represented a 1,109% increase from the year prior and was significantly higher than the 386% jump in overall ICE arrests in the state.

Cities across California experienced repeated high-profile immigration operations last year by ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, better known as Border Patrol. Immigration enforcement operations have become more targeted and less publicized in 2026, but remain more prevalent than in years past.

“We are seeing these arrests instill fear among community members and causing families to scramble and panic to find their loved ones,” said Timmy Lu, the director of AAPIs for Civic Empowerment Education Fund, at a Wednesday afternoon briefing.

California is home to more than 7.2 million Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, which is about 30% of the nation’s total AAPI population. Nearly 3,000 AAPI individuals in the state were arrested by ICE in 2025.

The AAPI communities that experienced the largest increases in ICE arrests were from India, China, Vietnam, Armenia and Laos.

Other findings from the analysis focused on the criminal history of those arrested. About 56% of the AAPI Californians arrested by ICE had no criminal record, up from 19% in 2024, according to the data.

The Trump administration, despite its rhetoric to pursue the “worst of the worst,” has fueled its increase in arrests, detentions and deportations with enforcement against people without criminal records and those following the legal pathway.

More than 70% of people in immigration detention centers don’t have criminal convictions, according to the latest available data by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

“We’re seeing pickups happening in front of their homes, on the way to work, at work, at their check-ins in the courthouse,” said CaseyAnn Carbonell, the immigration and deportation defense campaign director with Stockton-based nonprofit, Empowering Marginalized Asian Communities.

The analysis was based on individual arrest records between January 2024 and March 2026 reported by ICE and processed through UC Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project.

The tally is an undercount of the total immigration arrests under Trump as it only included ICE. Other federal agencies, including Border Patrol, have conducted deportations in the state.

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