Several hundred mostly Chinese Americans demonstrated against two bills they are calling racist, reports the Dallas Morning News.
Bills 147 and 552 would ban Chinese and people from Iran, North Korea and Russia from buying land in Texas. 552 would specifically ban the purchase of agricultural land by companies with ties to the four countries.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott has publicly supported 147.
“You pass this law, other states will follow and anti-Asian hate will increase in this country — definitely,” said Hailong Jin, board director of the DFW Chinese Alliance.
Democratic State Representative Gene Wu says the bill would have hurt his family and could negatively impact countless other families as well.
“Basically my family, we waited almost a decade for citizenship, we couldn’t buy our first home that we bought,” he said to WFAA.
Senator Louis Kolkhorst (R-Brennan) has pledged to amend the bill to make sure legal permanent residents could still buy property, but Wu says that’s not enough.
“There is no other place in the world called the land of opportunity. There is no other thing in the world called the American Dream,” he said. “There’s a reason why the United States is the most powerful country and the best country in the world. And that is because we welcome people from the entire world.”
Kolkhorst says
“The time to address adversarial countries acquiring land is before it becomes widespread, not after they already control substantial amounts of Texas,” she said, reported the Texas Tribune. She also says companies would still be able to “do business by leasing land and buildings.”
The Agriculture Department says Chinese investors currently own less than 1% of total foreign-held acreage. Both former President Trump and Florida Govenor Ron Desantis say they support such bans.
A similar bill has been proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas).
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And persons from Europe? Britain? I remember when there was a big hullabaloo about Japanese purchases in America when in fact England and other European countries held more American property or businesses than Japan. Pure racism. And do Americans own property and businesses around the world? How about all those American corporations in China? Pakistan? Haiti? Is that different? Americans buy property in Thailand, set up businesses all over the world.
My only concern is that the food grown in America will not stay in America. Food shortage is a global problem, and if the trends are correct, all countries, including America will need all the food we/they can grow.
If foreignors own land in America and grow food here, they should be required to sell to Americans first.
Most people do not know that 2 years ago, bird flu killed 70% of all the chickens in China. Chinese buyers dealt with this problem by purchasing several million tons of frozen chicken parts from Iowa farmers. That was good for our Iowa farmers and good for China. We are indeed a coupled and interdependent relationship with China. Of course, this is not a reality with the Russians, N. Koreans, or Iranians.