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Texas Republicans are working to ban Chinese citizens from owning land in the Lone Star State [1]
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Date: 2023-01-20
Lois Kolkhorst says that SB 147 are "about common-sense safeguards".
Just in time for Lunar New Year, Senate Bill 147, filed back in November by Texas Senator Lois Kolkhorst (R), has gained momentum among Texas Republicans. Senate Bill 147 would prohibit citizens, governments, and entities from China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia from purchasing land in Texas. Texas governor Greg Abbott (R) has signalled support for the bill.
This bill addresses a national security issue and will preserve our cherished private property rights and constitutional freedoms. It does not prohibit foreign business investment in Texas, because companies may still do business by leasing land and buildings. Passing this law delivers the safeguards to ensure that Texas remains Texas. SB 147 builds on SB 2116 which passed the Texas Legislature unanimously in 2021. That bill protected critical infrastructure against contracts or doing business with Russia, North Korea, China and Iran because of national security issues. Mirroring that legislation, SB 147 also names the same four countries and prohibits them from future purchases of Texas lands. The bill will make crystal clear that the prohibitions do not apply to United States citizens and lawful permanent residents. This has always been about common-sense safeguards against Russian, North Korean, Chinese and Iranian authoritarian regimes, not those fleeing the tyranny of those governments who seek freedom in Texas.
x A bill is filed in Texas legislature to ban citizens, governments & entities of China, Iran, North Korea & Russia from purchasing land in Texas.
I will sign it.
This follows a law I signed banning those countries from threatening our infrastructure.
https://t.co/0b3LiQZHmE — Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 15, 2023
Bobby Eberle is the chairperson of the Republican Party in Fort Bend County, a county known to have the highest proportion of Asians in the entire South. But no amount of Chinese-Americans in Sugar Land can keep Eberle from taking a hardline stance.
"I’m very much in support of SB 147," said Fort Bend County Republican Party Chair Bobby Eberle. "We need to protect our homeland and this does it.” Eberle said penalizing individuals isn’t the priority and natives of the countries in question who have become U.S. citizens have nothing to worry about. In fact, Eberle believes they may be supportive. "Because they don’t want those countries that they have escaped from getting more of a stranglehold or foothold in America,” said Eberle.
Tensions are slowly beginning to rise, as evidenced by a protest at the footsteps of the Fort Bend County Justice Centre. Fort Bend County KP George is concerned about foreign nationals who have green cards.
“Injustice for one is injustice for all,” Fort Bend County Judge KP George said. “It’s unfathomable that our state leaders, who are elected to serve in the best interest of all of their constituents, would target groups of people from different nations and prohibit them from their right to own property. It’s blatant discrimination.”
But some are not having any of it.
"Everyone wants to back down, because they are in fear of being called racist," Jules Knouldon, who is in favor of the bill, said. "That's not the case here. The woman is trying to protect people's property and businesses without foreign countries coming in and buying up everything." Knouldon said that America is not benefitting from farmland being purchased by foreign countries.
x I'd vote for that. Chinese taking over Oklahoma as we speak. — James Cummings (@JRCHouTX) January 20, 2023
Some lawmakers, like Gene Wu (D), have questioned why China is singled out when there are several nations that are communist.
Wu, the Houston lawmaker, said the bill is reminiscent of other pieces of anti-Chinese legislation dating back to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act — a 70-year prohibition on most Chinese immigration that the United States did not apologize for until 2012. He questioned why China is included in the bill — and why the country has been a focal point of Republican Party messaging — while many other countries escape scrutiny. “We oppose communist countries, right?” he asked. “Where's Cuba? Where's Venezuela? Where’s Vietnam? You say that we oppose countries that are hostile to our country? Great, where is Saudi Arabia? Where is Pakistan? Where are all these other places that have caused our country harm? It becomes a real slippery slope.” “The Asian population is the new scapegoat,” he added.
x Abbott is now pushing a bill that would strip away PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS away from every immigrant from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea waiting to become a US CITIZEN.
This is what Texas Republicans stand for. pic.twitter.com/PFDDXdCiLB — Gene Wu (@GeneforTexas) January 19, 2023
And Wu has a point. Chinese investors own only twice the land area of New York City.
But taken together, investors from the four countries account for a tiny sliver of foreign-owned farmland both in Texas and nationally: Chinese investors own about 383,000 total acres of U.S. farmland — about 600 square miles — which is less than 1% of total, foreign-held acreage, according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s 2021 land report. Investors from Russia, Iran and North Korea collectively own less than 3,000 acres, according to USDA. Canadian investors account for about 31% of foreign-own farmland in the United States — by far the largest share — followed by investors from the Netherlands at 12% and those from Italy at 7%.
It would be wise not to have a “slippery slope” when it comes to foreign nationals, especially if the United States of America wants to remain competitive in the global economy. Only 37 per cent of the American Right consider immigrants to be a strength, compared to 52 per cent of the British Right, 57 per cent of the Australian Right, and 65 per cent of the Canadian Right.
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