સ્ટોપ એશિયન હેટ / Courtesy Photo

Five years after the passage of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, signed by President Joe Biden during a surge of anti-Asian violence during the pandemic, advocates say hate incidents against Asian Americans, Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus and Pacific Islanders remain at alarmingly high levels, fueled now by renewed anti-immigrant rhetoric and political scapegoating.

At an American Community Media briefing marking Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, civil rights leaders warned that language portraying immigrants as threats to America is creating an atmosphere reminiscent of the post-9/11 era and the darkest periods of anti-Asian exclusion in U.S. history.

“Immigrant and anti-immigrant rhetoric is at an all-time high,” said John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice. “And unfortunately we currently have a president who is adding fuel to that fire.”

Yang was referring to recent comments by President Donald Trump, who reposted remarks from a far-right radio host describing immigrants from India and China as “gangsters with laptops,” while calling both countries “hellhole countries.” The comments also suggested Asian Americans are somehow disloyal and incapable of fully assimilating into American society.

“The stereotype of Asian Americans as perpetual foreigners has resurfaced, even though it never fully went away,” Yang said.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice AAJC and Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California released a report on anti-Asian hate and updated community resources based on the FBI’s National Hate Crime Statistics for 2024.

According to FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data, 833 hate crimes last year targeted Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, including 243 anti-Sikh hate crimes, 31 anti-Hindu incidents, 34 anti-Buddhist attacks and 24 anti-Muslim crimes.

Advocates stressed the numbers remain severely underreported.

“Even the data we know is minimized still shows elevated levels of hate crimes against all of our communities,” Yang said.

Civil rights groups argued that hate incidents extend far beyond what is captured in criminal statistics. Stephanie Chan, director of data and research at Stop AAPI Hate, said the organization’s latest national survey found that half of AAPI adults experienced a hate act in 2025.

“We have seen a shift from attackers blaming Asian people for COVID to now saying things like, ‘Trump should deport you,’” Chan said.

One Korean American woman in California reported being shoved in a fast-food restaurant by a stranger who screamed, “I can’t wait until Trump deports you like he promised.”

Another Pacific Islander man was told online to “get his papers ready” despite being a U.S. citizen.

Chan said only 22% of those experiencing hate incidents report them to authorities, often because they believe nothing will happen or fear exposure to immigration enforcement.

Nearly half of AAPI adults surveyed also said either they or someone they know personally has been affected by anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric. Many are withdrawing from public life, civic engagement and political participation out of fear.

“That is deeply concerning,” Chan said. “People seem to be going more into hiding at exactly the moment we need civic engagement the most.”

For Sikh Americans, current climate revives painful memories

Mannirmal Kaur of the Sikh Coalition said anti-Sikh violence in America stretches back more than a century, from attacks on Sikh mill workers in Washington state in 1907 to the wave of violence that followed 9/11.

“One of the first deadly hate crimes after 9/11 was the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi,” Kaur recalled, referring to the Sikh gas station owner shot and killed in Arizona four days after the attacks.

She noted that online anti-South Asian hate has surged again since the 2024 presidential election, with May and June 2025 becoming two of the highest months recorded for violent threats against South Asians.

“Racism, xenophobia and bigotry have featured prominently in mainstream politics and culture in alarming new ways,” she said.

Muslim Americans are witnessing renewed hate

Sameer Hossain of the Muslim Public Affairs Council said Muslim Americans are witnessing similar patterns.

He recounted the 2001 murder spree in Dallas in which a gunman seeking revenge for 9/11 shot South Asians he assumed were Muslim, killing a Pakistani Muslim and an Indian Hindu and gravely wounding a Bangladeshi Muslim.

More recently, Hossain pointed to the murder of 6-year-old Palestinian American Wadea Al-Fayoume outside Chicago in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.

“These waves keep happening,” Hossain said. “Communities continue to be otherized and treated as outsiders.”

The Muslim Public Affairs Council documented an elevenfold increase in attacks against American Muslims and mosques earlier this year, coinciding with inflammatory rhetoric from elected officials and growing tensions around the Israel-Iran conflict and the war in Gaza.

Why Asian Americans continue to be viewed as outsiders even generations after immigration

“Because we look different, there is still a barrier we need to overcome,” Yang said. But he also noted that Asian Americans remain relatively recent immigrants in demographic terms.

“Until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, we were only half a percent of the U.S. population. Sixty years later we are 7%,” he said.

Yang drew parallels to earlier immigrant communities once viewed as incapable of assimilation, including Irish, Italian and Polish immigrants.

Still, he rejected the idea that Asian Americans should have to constantly prove their patriotism.

“We should not be in a space where we need to keep our heads down to show we are American,” he said. “America is a nation of ideals, not blood or ethnicity.”

Government policies creating a dangerous environment where hate becomes normalized

Throughout the briefing, speakers warned that government policies dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs, restricting immigration and undermining civil rights protections are creating a dangerous environment where hate becomes normalized.

They also criticized efforts to weaken hate crime reporting infrastructure and cut federal grants supporting community-based anti-hate programs.

“There are organizations trying to scapegoat communities for economic anxiety and social frustration,” Yang said. “Currently the scapegoating is immigrants.”

Yet despite the grim statistics and growing fear, advocates said communities are still organizing, resisting and demanding accountability.

Following anti-Asian attacks in Atlanta and Indianapolis in 2021, public pressure led to the passage of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. Organizers say similar solidarity is needed again now.

“We are in a crisis moment,” Yang said. “But we have seen these playbooks before. Our communities have responded before. And we will respond again.”

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