In 2024, Stop AAPI Hate published an analysis of Project 2025 to sound the alarm about the massive implications for Asian Americans and Pacific Islander (AA/PI) people. Project 2025 is an ultra-authoritarian blueprint to Trump’s second term written by the Heritage Foundation — a Christian nationalist group that has deep ties to the current administration.
Now that 2025 has come and gone, we know that we were right to be concerned.
From immigration to education, and from healthcare to the cost of living, the Trump administration has wasted no time in executing on the proposals in Project 2025.
In this follow-up blog post, we’re answering three questions:
1) A year later, where has Project 2025 caused the most harm?
2) How has it impacted Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders?
3) What can we expect in 2026?
Keep reading an issue-by-issue breakdown of Project 2025 and what it meant for AA/PI communities in 2025.
Targeting immigrants for arrest, incarceration, and deportation
BROADVIEW, ILLINOIS – OCTOBER 10: Demonstrators protest near the immigration processing and detention facility on October 10, 2025 in Broadview, Illinois. Demonstrations have been taking place outside of the facility for several weeks as the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz has been underway, arresting and detaining immigrants in the Chicago area. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Project 2025 wants to turn the U.S. into a hostile place for immigrants of color — expanding enforcement and detention; separating families; cutting off immigration pathways; and targeting people based on their race, faith, or national origin.
Just one year into his term, Trump and his allies have made significant progress on all of the above, endangering people of color across the nation and eroding our democracy.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Empower ICE to raid homes, schools, businesses, and houses of worship without a judicial warrant (pg. 142). | Status: Done ⚠️ |
What Trump has done: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rescinded a three decades-long policy that protected “sensitive areas” from Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE).
While litigation is still pending, ICE officers are rounding people up at schools, hospitals, immigration court, and other sensitive locations. And under the leadership of Secretary Noem, agents are also encouraged to operate without warrants, putting entire communities of people at risk of detention.
Communities are already feeling the impact. Parents are keeping their children home from school and immigrant families are turning down food assistance, medical care, and other public benefits to avoid scrutiny.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Expand immigrant detention, bringing the number of available beds to 100,000 daily (pg. 42). | Status: In Progress ⚒️ |
What Trump has done: In 2025, DHS reopened 77 facilities nationwide and detained immigrants in all 50 states, including U.S. territories like Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
More people are in immigration detention than ever before. In mid-August 2025, ICE counted over 61,000 people in immigrant detention — not including the immigrants exiled to prisons in Central America and Africa.
Inside, the conditions are horrific. 32 people, including at least 6 Asian immigrants, have died in ICE custody since Trump took office, making 2025 ICE’s the deadliest year in more than two decades.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Limit H-1B visas, which help college graduates remain in the U.S. to work after completing their degrees (pg. 145). | Status: Done ⚠️ |
What Trump has done: He issued a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa petitions and changed the H-1B lottery to give preference to higher-paying roles.
This extreme $100,000 fee makes it next to impossible for international students to find jobs after graduation. And most of the impact falls on Asian workers, who account for over 85% of H-1B visa holders and over 70% of student visa holders in the United States.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Add a citizenship question to the U.S. Census, discouraging citizens and non-citizens alike from responding (pg. 680). | Status: Pending ⏳ |
What Trump has done: Trump hasn’t started the process for adding such a question to the 2030 Census, but Congress has.
Conservative lawmakers have re-introduced the so-called Equal Representation Act (H.R. 151/S. 2205), which would require the U.S. Census, starting in 2030, to include a citizenship question. Asking about citizenship will discourage immigrant households from filling out the Census, and as a result, immigrant-rich states and cities will lose funding for healthcare, school meals, and other critical programs.
| What Project 2025 proposed: End the DACA program, which offers relief from deportation for children (“Dreamers”) who were brought to the U.S. without documentation (pg. 145). | Status: Pending⏳ |
What Trump has done: So far, he has not pursued regulatory changes to end the DACA — but that doesn’t mean he supports the program or the 14,000 Asian American and 150 Pacific Islander people who benefit from it.
In just twelve months, the Trump administration has made life a lot harder for Dreamers: rolling back their health coverage, targeting them during immigration raids, and even encouraging them to “self-deport.”
| What Project 2025 proposed: Ban family-based immigration and other immigration categories that have allowed generations of AA/PI people to immigrate to the U.S. (pg. 145). | Status: In Progress⚒️ |
What Trump has done: He has not proposed an outright ban on family-based immigration, but his administration is making the process a whole lot harder for many immigrant families and impossible for others.
Trump’s travel ban on 39 countries and visa processing pause for 75 countries prevent families from being reunited in the U.S. The travel ban and visa processing pause severely restrict immigration from 13 Asian countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Uzbekistan) and two Pacific Island countries (Fiji, Tonga).
Furthermore, new guidance allows U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to deny immigration applications with missing documents or incomplete information without advance notice. Applicants who forget to attach a file or make a simple mistake will have to start the process over again.
These immigration barriers will make things worse and keep families separated for years at a time. Asian immigrants, who account for almost 40% of the family visa backlog, will be disproportionately impacted.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Discontinue visas for Chinese students and researchers (pg. 790). | Status: In Progress ⚒️ |
What Trump has done: Trump caused upheaval for international students when ICE terminated the SEVIS records of thousands of international students and the State Department announced plans to revoke visas from Chinese students associated with the CCP or majoring in certain fields. Though SEVIS records were restored and Trump later claimed that Chinese students are welcome here, the damage has been done as Chinese and other international students have continued to live in fear.
What does this mean for AA/PI communities?
Trump took his immigration agenda straight out of Project 2025, and just as we expected, it has had devastating consequences for Asian people in America. Remember: Asian Americans represent the only racial group that is majority foreign-born, and most Asian people living in the U.S. are immigrants.
As a result of Trump’s mass deportation operation, the number of Asian people arrested by ICE has more than tripled. Most of them have no criminal record. In detention, Asian immigrants have reported horrific conditions, significant language barriers, and limited access to legal counsel.
It’s not just undocumented immigrants who are being harmed. A recent Supreme Court ruling legalized racial profiling during immigration raids, allowing ICE to target people of color based on their race, language, accent, and/or place of employment. That means even citizens are at risk of being unjustly stopped, harassed, and questioned by ICE.
What can we expect in 2026?
Things are about to get even worse for immigrant communities.
Trump’s so-called “big beautiful bill” (also known as HR 1) gives federal agencies $170 billion for anti-immigrant enforcement, detention, and deportation. That includes $45 billion to build new immigrant detention facilities that house as many as 125,000 people at a time. More immigrants will die in ICE detention from inhumane conditions including limited access to healthcare.
Plus the Supreme Court is set to rule on Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship. If it moves forward, thousands of babies will be forced into a permanent underclass, unable to get jobs or access critical benefits and protections reserved for U.S. citizens.
Hurting workers and working families
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 19: People wait in line to receive free food during a food giveaway at Shiloh Mercy House on November 19, 2025 in Oakland, California. San Francisco Bay Area food banks are continuing to operate in crisis mode despite the federal government shutdown ending, with tens of thousands of Bay Area households turning to emergency groceries after the temporary halt in SNAP benefits worsened already high levels of food insecurity. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The writers of Project 2025 have a simple goal: to make life easier for the billionaire class by making life harder for the working class. In his first year in office, Trump has done exactly that: cutting taxes for corporations and the ultra-rich while raising taxes on working families and making groceries and products more expensive. The administration is slashing the social safety net, stripping workers of legal protections, and making workplaces less diverse.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Dramatically expand tariffs, blocking out ‘Made in China’ products (pg. 789). | Status: Done ⚠️ |
What Trump has done: He added double-digit tariffs on imports from around the world, including China — making groceries and household products more and more expensive.
As of November 2025, U.S. tariffs on all Chinese exports have reached 47.5% — an added cost that U.S. consumers are forced to pay.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Drastically cut food assistance and other critical social benefits (pg. 299-300). | Status: Done ⚠️ |
What Trump has done: To fund tax cuts for billionaires in HR 1, Trump slashed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $187 billion.
SNAP offers food assistance to 1.78 million Asian Americans and more than 128,000 Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander people.
Thanks to HR 1, 4 million people will see substantial cuts to their food assistance. Some of them will lose their benefits altogether.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Suspend federally-funded diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programming (pg. 582). | Status: Done ⚠️ |
What Trump has done: Within weeks of returning to office, Trump signed a series of executive orders (14151 and 14173) attacking DEI policies and programs nationwide and directing federal agencies to terminate and prosecute them.
These federal attacks on DEI have resulted in countless lawsuits and investigations targeting both public- and private-sector DEI programs.
A third executive order (14281) makes it more difficult for job applicants and employees to challenge employers for policies or practices that have discriminatory impact.
What does this mean for AA/PI communities?
In 2025, AA/PI adults reported that the cost-of-living is the top issue they are concerned about.
On top of the current cost-of-living crisis, Trump’s tariffs have put significant economic strain on small business owners, including Asian people, who own 11% of small businesses and close to 20% of restaurants in the U.S. Some Chinatown businesses in particular have reported lower demand and increased costs for goods, with some hiking prices by an average of 50%.
And while Trump’s trade policies leave working families struggling to get by, outright attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion leave AA/PI students and workers with fewer opportunities.
What can we expect in 2026?
Working families can expect more economic strain in 2026 as the federal government continues to escalate trade wars with other countries.
To make things worse, HR 1 defunds healthcare and food assistance for working families while using our tax dollars to grow ICE operations and give tax cuts to big corporations and the ultra-wealthy. That means more everyday people will find themselves struggling to meet their basic needs.
Additionally, without investment in DEI initiatives, fewer AA/PI voices will be heard and represented and fewer communities will receive the culturally- and linguistically-specific support they need.
Undermining U.S. public education
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 13: Community members rally in front of the Department of Education to protest budget cuts on March 13, 2025 in Washington, DC. On Monday, the House passed a continuing resolution that would cut over $1 billion from D.C.’s budget, potentially leading to layoffs and reduced public safety, school, and transportation services. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
Under the direction of Project 2025, the Trump administration has acted quickly to gut the public education system by making it less accessible to certain communities and going after classrooms and instructors that stray from Project 2025’s white Christian nationalist vision.
In less than a year, they have already moved to dismantle the Department of Education and defund critical programs that provide students with the tools and support they need to get a high-quality education.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Eliminate the Department of Education (ED) (pg. 319). | Status: In Progress ⚒️ |
What Trump has done: Trump signed an executive order (14242) directing Secretary McMahon to shutter ED.
ED plays a critical role in civil rights enforcement and the funding of K-12 programs like language access support and special education. In less than a year, Secretary McMahon has already reduced the agency by more than half — initiating large‑scale layoffs and moving critical programs into other federal agencies.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Defund services for low-income children and students (pg. 302-303, 482). | Status: In Progress ⚒️ |
What Trump has done: In HR 1, he made devastating cuts to food assistance and healthcare, while adding strict eligibility criteria for school lunch programs that will cause thousands of children to go hungry.
Trump also tried to defund Head Start, a federal program that provides services and preschool to low-income families with children ages 0-5, including foster and unhoused children, but lawmakers were reluctant to support him. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) tried to disqualify undocumented children from Head Start, but courts have temporarily blocked these efforts.
At the start of this year, HHS froze $10 billion in funding for child care subsidies for low-income families in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York — states which are home to millions of working class AA/PI families with young children.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Ban instruction on systemic racism and gender identity from public schools (pg. 342-343, 346). | Status: In Progress ⚒️ |
What Trump has done: He signed an executive order (14190) prohibiting federal funding to K-12 schools that teach critical race theory or “gender ideology”. It also directed DOJ to prosecute faculty who support transgender students — or even use their preferred names and pronouns.
Federal agencies have since followed suit. ED sent letters to all 50 states, threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that promote diversity, equity, or inclusion practices or programs. And HHS has threatened to terminate federal grants for state sex ed programs unless lessons about gender and sexual orientation are removed.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Privatize federal student loan programs and eliminate student loan forgiveness programs (pg. 353-354). | Status: Pending ⏳ |
What Trump has done: He hasn’t privatized federal student loans or eliminated the Public Student Loan Forgiveness Program yet, but his administration has made higher education less affordable to student borrowers.
HR 1 forces student loan borrowers to make payments for a longer period of time before they can qualify for loan forgiveness.
Meanwhile, one executive order (14235) targets Trump’s political enemies by disqualifying borrowers from student loan forgiveness if they work at public agencies or nonprofit organizations that the administration alleges are engaging in activities they have labeled “illegal,” such as providing gender-affirming care or helping immigrants who are being targeted for deportation.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Revive the China Initiative (pg. 556). | Status: Pending ⏳ |
What Trump has done: Trump’s allies in Congress have tried to reestablish the China Initiative through the appropriations process but so far, their attempts have been unsuccessful.
The China Initiative was a racist and ineffective program designed to prosecute Chinese American professors for alleged economic espionage and trade theft on behalf of the Chinese government. Experts agree the China Initiative was a failure that did nothing but end the careers of innocent researchers, fuel anti-Asian scapegoating, and waste millions in taxpayer dollars.
What does this mean for AA/PI communities?
All students have the right to affordable, accessible, and inclusive public education, but Project 2025 aims to slash the support systems that make this possible.
That includes the 40% of Pacific Islander and 27% of Asian students who will go hungry without low-cost or free school lunches. It also includes the hundreds of thousands of AA/PI students who count on ED to oversee and enforce their right to a free and fair education, including:
- English learners, who make up 20% of all AA/PI students in public K-12 schools and count on federal protections and resources that allow them to learn.
- Students in Title I schools, which receive federal funding to support low-income families and which educate 1 in 3 Asian American and 2 in 3 Pacific Islander students.
- Students with disabilities, including roughly 213,000 Asian American students and 21,000 Pacific Islander students who benefit from accommodations guaranteed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Section 504, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
What can we expect in 2026?
We expect to see Trump escalate his attacks on people and subjects deemed counter to his political agenda.
In the classroom, this could involve increased censorship of content and speech about race, gender, or civil rights. Outside the classroom, this could involve withholding student loan forgiveness from public service borrowers working in immigration law or reproductive health.
As for the future of ED, it rests with the courts. If ED shuts down, the harm could last for generations.
Blocking access to reproductive health and gender-affirming care
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 24: A group of doctors join abortion rights supporters at a rally outside the Supreme Court on April 24, 2024 in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court hears oral arguments today on Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States to decide if Idaho emergency rooms can provide abortions to pregnant women during an emergency using a federal law known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act to supersede a state law that criminalizes most abortions in Idaho. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Overturning Roe v. Wade was just a starting point for the far-right extremists behind Project 2025. Their ultimate goal is to control how people make decisions related to their gender identity and reproductive health. In his first year in office, Trump has remained faithful to their roadmap — even as it has resulted in death.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Exclude abortion from healthcare, and restrict access to abortion and contraception (pg. 457-459, 471-475, 478, 562). | Status: In Progress ⚒️ |
What Trump has done: He cut essential funding for reproductive health care and has continued to promote dangerous misinformation to undermine access to abortion medication.
Through HR 1, Trump implemented Medicaid restrictions targeting reproductive health care providers, including 600 Planned Parenthood locations. Litigation is underway, but in the meantime, clinics across the country have been forced to shut down or cut essential services.
He also froze Title X funding, which provides free or low-cost reproductive healthcare services like contraception, STI testing, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and pregnancy-related counseling.
Moreover, Trump is using the power of federal agencies to promote “junk science” and attack mifepristone, one of the safest and most common medications for abortion and miscarriage management. Scientists are concerned that he will use this investigation as a pretense to restrict access to mifepristone nationwide.
| What Project 2025 proposed: Undermine access to gender-affirming care and sex education (pg. 474-475, 477). | Status: In Progress ⚒️ |
What Trump has done: Within days of returning to office, he issued two executive orders (14168 and 14187) directing federal agencies to dismantle and attack gender-affirming care. Fortunately, he has not yet taken any major actions targeting sex education.
The DOJ, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have all announced extensive, ideologically driven investigations into clinics and healthcare providers nationwide that provide gender-affirming care. And HHS has proposed guidelines for defunding gender-affirming care providers for youth. It also issued countless notices, warnings, andadvisories containing dangerous misinformation to discredit gender-affirming care.
What does this mean for AA/PI communities?
Within AA/PI communities, discussion of gender, sex, and/or sexual orientation is often stigmatized, which means AA/PI individuals often face additional barriers to accessing reproductive health or gender-affirming care.
Certain states that have significantly limited or outright banned abortion and gender-affirming care — like Texas, North Carolina, Indiana, and Arkansas — are also home to some of the fastest-growing AA/PI populations in the U.S.
What can we expect in 2026?
Federal attacks on reproductive health and gender-affirming care show no sign of letting up in 2026.
Trump’s funding freeze on Title X grants is still making its way through the courts. Depending on the final ruling, 1 in 3 Title X grantees — or some 834,000 people, most of them low-income and/or uninsured — are in danger of losing access to reproductive healthcare.
We can also expect to see more clinics and providers halt reproductive and gender-affirming care or close their doors under the threat of funding cuts and federal investigation or retaliation.
Conclusion
The speed at which the Trump administration has implemented Project 2025 in just one year is alarming — and the people behind it have outlined even more priorities for 2026.
While many of Trump’s actions are being challenged in court, legal challenges can take years to resolve.
On the other hand, the remaining policy recommendations in Project 2025 will be harder for Trump to implement because they require Congressional approval.
That means AA/PI communities still have time to resist Trump’s pro-Project 2025 agenda before all the damage is one. And as the fastest-growing group of eligible voters in the nation, Asian and Pacific Islander people have the political power to defend democracy, fight back against authoritarianism, and build a fairer, more equitable future for all.
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