Latest news with #propertyban
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas push to ban non-citizens from buying land prompts racism worries
A renewed push in Texas to ban Chinese and other non-citizens from purchasing property is almost across the finish line, prompting protests by opponents who claim the measure will stoke discrimination against minorities. The legislation previously failed in 2023, but has gained new steam in the Republican-led state since President Donald Trump's return to office on a stark anti-immigration and anti-China agenda. The Texas bill, SB 17, bans most non-citizens from countries deemed by the United States to be national security threats from purchasing any property. That list currently includes China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, but a recent amendment allows Governor Greg Abbott -- a close Trump ally -- the freedom to add other countries. A sponsor of the bill, State Representative Cole Hefner, claimed the push "is about securing Texas land and natural resources... (from) adversarial nations and oppressive regimes that wish to do us harm." Hundreds of protesters on Saturday took to the streets in the capital Austin, carrying posters reading "stop the hate" and "housing is a human right." "If you make a law targeting certain people just because of their origin, their country where they come from, that's racist. This is a racist bill," said Alice Yi, co-founder of Asian Texans for Justice. "This is our country too," the 68-year-old added. According to US Census data, Asians represented roughly six percent of the Texas population in 2023 -- 1.7 million people out of 31.3 million -- but were the fastest growing group in the state. "Not everybody is a spy, not everybody here is associated with... the home country," said Eileen Huang, 42, with the Texas Multicultural Advocacy Coalition. "A lot of people, they flee from the home country. Why? Because they don't agree" with the country's leadership, she added. The top Democrat in the Texas House, Representative Gene Wu, argued that exemptions for lawful permanent residents did not go far enough. "They've accepted green card holders and citizens, but the problem is you cannot become a green card holder or a citizen if you do not have a way to show that you can live here permanently," he told AFP. Wu, who was born in China, said "people don't know the difference between Asian people, they just see an Asian face." "What this will mean is across the board discrimination against all Asians." SB 17 passed the House on Friday with several amendments, and must now be passed again in the Senate. With mounting political and economic tensions between Washington and Beijing in recent years, similar bans targeting Chinese land ownership have popped up in multiple other states. Texas itself passed a law in 2021 to bans companies from several nations, including China, from connecting to the power grid. The legislation was passed to block Chinese mogul Sun Guangxin from building a large wind farm in the state. mav/ag/des/jbr
Associated Press
09-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Texas House advances bill to prohibit land sales to people and entities from certain countries
The Texas House agreed late Thursday to let the governor determine the countries whose residents, governments and other entities could be banned from buying property here. Members granted the governor such power when they amended Senate Bill 17, whose real estate sales restrictions were limited to countries that the U.S. national director of intelligence has designated as national security threats. Currently, that list includes only China, Iran, North Korea and Russia. After giving the governor the ability to expand the list of restricted countries, the House then gave SB 17 preliminary approval in a 85-60 vote. The bill now heads back to the Senate. State Rep. Nate Schatzline, the Republican from Fort Worth who introduced the amendment, said the goal was to make sure that any threats to Texas could quickly be addressed. 'Our governor can act swiftly rather than waiting for a year for that to be added into the (director of national intelligence's) designated country list,' he said. That amendment drew rebuke from Democrats. 'This gives the governor unfettered power to add whatever county he wants to in this bill,' said state Rep. Gene Wu, chair of House Democratic Caucus. 'It's kind of dangerous to say one person can decide whatever country he or she wants to add to this without any oversight, without any controls — this is the definition of overreach.' Schatzline's amendment also allows the governor to add 'transnational criminal organizations' to the list of entities barred from buying Texas property. Schatzline pointed to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as an example. State Rep. Cole Hefner, the Mt. Pleasant Republican carrying SB 17 in the lower chamber, described the bill during Thursday's hourslong debate as 'securing Texas land and natural resources and making sure that this precious resource does not fall prey to adversarial nations and oppressive regimes that wish to do us harm.' The bill's advancement came over opposition from Democrats who are concerned that it could be used to potentially discriminate against Asian Americans. The bill will need one more House vote before it goes back to the Senate. The upper chamber previously approved a version of the bill, but House members amended several key portions of it Thursday. The Senate's previous version would have exempted anyone or any entity that leased the property to someone else for under 100 years. The House limited that exemption to property leased to someone else for one year or less. Rep. Mitch Little called the 100-year lease exemption 'a loophole that you could drive a Mack truck through.' The House also previously amended the bill to exempt lawful permanent residents. But Democrats failed to make changes to the bill several times Thursday. Their failed amendments included provisions that would have exempted visa holders such as medical students and researchers, performers and athletes. They also raised concerns that the law could hurt the Texas economy. SB 17 is Brenham Republican Sen. Lois Kolkhorst 's second attempt at limiting who can buy property in Texas. Similar legislation she authored in 2023 died in the House. In committee hearings this year, she described the legislation as protecting Texas' assets from 'hostile nations.' 'This is a matter of national security,' she said in March. 'Texas must act now to protect our land, food sources, water, and natural resources.' A batch of new, more conservative lawmakers were elected to the House last year, giving new life to legislation that struggled in previous sessions. Chief among those measures are the creation of school vouchers. If passed, the bill goes into effect Sept. 1 and would only apply to purchases or acquisitions after that date. It would require the attorney general's office to create a process to investigate possible violations and refer the matter to a district court. If the court finds a violation, it would be authorized to order the purchaser to divest from the property either by selling it or terminating the lease, according to the House Research Organization's most recent analysis of the bill. The court also would be required to refer the matter for potential criminal offenses. The amount of Texas property owned by entities from outside the U.S. is not tracked in detail, aside from agricultural land. But Joshua Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law, said it is likely a very small fraction. In the U.S. overall, Chinese investors own less than 1% of total foreign-held acreage, according to 2021 data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Investors from Russia, Iran and North Korea collectively own less than 3,000 acres. But to Abraham George, chair of the Texas Republican Party, 1% is too much — which is why the bill was a party priority. Rep. Angie Chen Button, who was only the second Asian American woman to serve in the Legislature and whose parents fled from China, also spoke in support of the bill Thursday night, saying the bill aims to 'protect our freedom, liberty and national security.' She introduced a similar bill last session. Some Asian Texans are concerned the bill would create animosity and 'state-sanctioned racial profiling,' said Lily Trieu, executive director of the civic engagement group Asian Texans for Justice. The bill doesn't prohibit purchases of land based on national origin, which would violate federal civil rights laws. Instead, it prohibits people based on their permanent residence. Wu, who immigrated to the United States from China as a child, said the bill could impact not just Chinese people in Texas, but members of all Asian communities in the state. 'Nobody knows the difference between Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean, right? Nobody knows what your immigration status is,' he said in an interview. 'When they discriminate against you … when they look for people to assault, they don't really care what you are. They care that you have Asian face.' Trieu said the group's No. 1 concern is that individuals shouldn't be conflated with governments. 'Just like how no one here would want to travel to another country and be held individually accountable for what Governor Abbott does or what President Donald Trump does,' she said. 'These individuals should not be held accountable for what the government of their national origin does, or what their ideology is, or what, you know, the government does as an entity.' Trieu said the group was formed to engage Asian Texans in civic participation such as voting, but this bill galvanized people into getting involved in legislation. Wu expects the bill is just the start of that. And even with its passage, he sees it as a loss for the Republican Party because it could push Asian American voters to shift to the Democratic Party in the 2026 midterm elections. 'I think the Republicans are heading into gale force winds in 2026 if they want to alienate and make enemies of an entire community who for a large part has stayed out of politics,' he said in an interview. ___ This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
