AUSTIN, Texas – More than 100 people, the vast majority Asian American Texans, decried a bill designed to ban Chinese citizens from owning property in the state.
Dozens panned Senate Bill 147 as discriminatory and unconstitutional, while its author touted it as a necessary security measure to protect the state from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia. No action was taken on the bill, which has emerged as one of the more controversial proposals during this year’s legislative session.
Its author, Brenham Republican Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, said the proposal enjoys popular support among Texans. But leading up to Thursday’s public hearing, Kolkhorst significantly modified the bill, softening it after Asian American and Pacific Islander advocacy groups, Democratic lawmakers, real estate organizations and banking trade groups expressed concern for its targeting of people based on nationality.
“I reject any notion that this is a racist bill,” Kolkhorst said at the outset of the Senate State Affairs Committee meeting. The powerful committee took up her bill along with a similar one from Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock.
Kolkhorst released a revised version of the bill that would ban citizens, companies and government organizations from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from owning any property in Texas.
But it would make exceptions for dual citizens and permanent residents from those countries to own property in the state. Further, it exempts home ownership from its property ban on citizens of those countries – regardless of their status in the United States – as long as its owner registers it as a homestead.
Critics of the bill argue that it comes as Asian American hate continues to be on the rise amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of its chief opponents at the Capitol, Houston Rep. Gene Wu, told The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday that the bill is a part of the U.S.’s long history of discriminatory acts aimed at Asian Americans.
“This legislation says point blank that Asian Americans are a threat to our country,” said Wu, who is Chinese-American.
To support her bill, Kolkhorst cited a two-year ban on foreign purchases of residential property in Canada and USDA figures obtained by the Wall Street Journal indicating that Texas leads the nation in Chinese-owned agricultural land by a wide margin, with more than 150,000 acres owned by China.
According to the USDA, China owned roughly 384,000 acres of land in the United States as of Dec. 31, 2020. It represents less than 1% of all foreign-owned land in the country, with Canada leading the way with 12.8 million acres.
But amid simmering tensions between the two countries, political focus on Chinese investment in Texas has remained high since 2021. A Chinese subsidiary purchased about 140,000 acres of land in Val Verde County then to build a wind farm near Laughlin Air Force Base outside of Del Rio.
Kolkhorst said her bill builds on a 2021 Texas law that banned companies based in China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from owning critical infrastructure in Texas. That legislation had near universal support in both chambers but did not target individuals.
“This is about national security at the heart and soul of it. It is about food protection. It is about mineral protection, and it is about making sure that we do not have what we saw in North Dakota,” Kolkhorst said, referring to a Chinese company’s effort to build a corn mill near Grand Forks Air Force Base.
The proposal would still prohibit citizens of targeted countries from owning business property, and some raised questions about the ability of affected individuals to lease property as well under the bill.
Gov. Greg Abbott has said he supports Kolkhorst’s bill, which has bipartisan support after the modified legislation gained McAllen Democratic state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa as a co-author.
But in the Senate chamber, the vast majority of those who testified at a public hearing spoke against the bill. Among them was Chinese American Peter Lai, who said it limits basic rights of people from its selected countries and is an overreach.
“How is a Chinese national buying a coffee shop in downtown Austin a national threat?” Lai said. “But SB 147 will make that a national security issue.”
Several also said the bill violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution as well as an equal rights clause in the Texas Constitution banning discrimination based on nationality.
Martha Wong, the first Asian-American woman elected to the Texas House as a Republican representing a Houston district, spoke against the bill saying it is unintentionally creating discrimination.
“We do not want that backward movement where people look at me and think that I am a communist,” Wong said. “That is what is happening.”
But Wong saw a path to compromise. She suggested removing references to specific nations. She spoke near the end of roughly five hours of testimony remarking that “it’s the first time I have ever seen so many Asians in the state house.”
“That’s the good part,” she said. “Asians are being a part of the political process, which I have been trying to do for years.”
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