Los Angeles County’s sizable Asian immigrant communities are bracing for disruption and heartache as rumors swirl of mass deportations to be carried out under sweeping new orders issued by the Trump administration.
At religious centers and job sites, community leaders are hosting “Know Your Rights” training sessions in Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Punjabi and other languages to educate immigrants about their constitutional rights should they be confronted by federal agents at home or in the workplace.
“Overwhelmingly, concern is what we hear,” said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the South Asian Network. Even Asians who were born in the U.S. or have gained legal status through other routes are worried about what’s ahead. “Brown-looking people are perceived as permanent foreigners,” Syed said. “As a consequence, they, too, may be wrapped up in a raid, only because they don’t look ‘American.’”
While an estimated 79% of undocumented residents in L.A. County are natives of Mexico and Central America, Asian immigrants make up the second-largest group, constituting 16% of people in the county without legal authorization, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Across the U.S., Indians make up the third-largest group of undocumented residents, behind Mexicans and Salvadorans.
Asian organizers say the Trump administration’s policies deeming anyone in the country without authorization a criminal, subject to expedited deportation, will have profound reverberations in Los Angeles County. According to the Pew Research Center, the L.A. metropolitan area is home to the largest populations of Cambodians, Koreans, Indonesians, Filipinos, Thai and Vietnamese people in the U.S.
Shortly after taking office, President Trump signed a slew of executive orders aimed at dramatically reshaping U.S. immigration. Taken together, the orders sharply limit legal pathways for entering the U.S., bolster enforcement efforts to seal off the U.S.-Mexico border, and promote aggressive sweeps to round up and deport people living in the U.S. illegally. He has empowered Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to deport more than 1 million immigrants who were granted legal entry to the U.S. during the Biden administration while they awaited hearings on their asylum pleas.
Recently, a group of about 100 Indian migrants were transported back to India on a U.S. military plane. And this week, news reports said 119 migrants, including some from Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, were transported by plane to Panama, where they will await deportation to their home countries. Media reports suggest the Indian government has agreed to repatriate 18,000 Indians living in the U.S.
Traditionally, many Asian immigrants living in L.A. came to the U.S. legally, using temporary work or tourist visas, then later obtained legal status or simply overstayed their visas. The motivation can vary, Syed said, but similar to Latino migrants, many Asian migrants want to live in the U.S. because it offers work and educational opportunities that they lack back home. Some are fleeing oppressive government regimes, repressive cultures or religious persecution.
Manjusha Kulkarni is executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, a coalition of more than 40 community organizations. Kulkarni said Asian immigrants lacking legal status tend to work in low-wage service jobs, often in industries where Asian American communities, over generations, have established a strong presence. For instance, many undocumented Vietnamese work at nail salons; many Cambodians at doughnut shops; and many Indians in the hotel and motel industry. In Monterey Park, a common landing spot for Chinese migrants, employment agencies routinely connect workers with jobs at warehouses, restaurants and marijuana farms, with no work permit required.
In recent years, as it’s gotten harder to obtain work and tourist visas, rising numbers of Asian migrants have joined Central Americans in arduous treks across treacherous jungles to request asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The number of Chinese nationals authorities encountered at the southern and northern U.S. borders was 78,701 in fiscal year 2024, up from 27,756 in 2022, according to federal data. The number of Indian nationals encountered at the southern and northern U.S. borders was 90,415 in 2024, up from 63,927 in 2022.
Connie Chung Joe, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, said she has been told of Asian immigrants canceling medical appointments because they are afraid of being seen as a public charge. Events for food distribution and COVID-19 vaccinations that usually attract hundreds of immigrants now attract 50.
“There’s a lot of general anxiety and fear of being seen, or what could happen if they go out,” she said.
One L.A. County resident, who did not want to be identified due to her family’s lack of legal status, said she and her family have become more cautious when leaving their home. Trump’s election, she said, “has really made us feel like we don’t have power.”
She said that she and her family arrived from Pakistan when she was 8 on a visa that eventually expired. She later became a DACA recipient, a status that allows her to live and work in the U.S., but her parents remain undocumented. The rumors of imminent raids have made her family reluctant to drive. That means fewer outings, and when they do drive, taking extra care not to do anything that might draw attention.
Amir Mertaban, executive director of the Islamic Society of Orange County, is preparing to welcome thousands of people at the mosque in preparation for Ramadan, which begins at the end of the month. Already, he said, the organization is holding training sessions, including for students who have asked him for guidance on how they should approach public protests if they are in the U.S. on visas, have temporary status or are undocumented.
Even the mosque has become a source of tension, Mertaban said, as Trump has given ICE the OK to raid places of worship.
“One part of the community is terrified, because they are expecting an ICE raid literally at any moment,” he said. “People are coming to a safe space where they can let their guard down and connect with a higher power. The last thing I need is the community to worry about whether they’re going to get deported, or whether law enforcement is going to raid the mosque.”