Property purchase curbs spark outrage in Texas

Legislation would bar Chinese and three other nationalities from buying real estate in state

Wu Xiaoyu, an information technology professional at Amazon, was among several hundred people attending a rally outside the Texas Capitol building in Austin, the United States, on Jan 29.

They gathered in front of the structure to protest Texas legislative bill SB 147, which if passed would ban government entities, companies and citizens of China, Iran, Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from buying real estate in Texas.

Wu said he is outraged by the bill proposed by Texas state Senator Lois Kolkhorst, who is a Republican, and endorsed by the state's Governor Greg Abbott. The latter tweeted shortly before Chinese New Year that he would sign the bill into law.

The bill has triggered outrage from communities, including Chinese Americans, in major metropolitan areas of Texas.

As the protest took place, Wu's son was celebrating Spring Festival a few blocks away at the University of Texas with members of the institution's community.

Wu told the crowd he attended the university as a student from China in 2012, before working for Amazon after graduation. He is proud of his contribution to Texas and said the apps he has developed have enabled thousands of Amazon workers and fellow Texans to make an extra $10 to $20 per shift.

Amazon workers use Wu's apps to swap shifts among themselves when they need to take care of sick family members or celebrate a special occasion.

Wu said it took him 10 years to complete a lengthy and complicated process to obtain his US green card, which grants the holder permanent residency in the US. His wife, who is due to complete a nursing program in spring, plans to become a licensed nurse.

"Just when we finally had a sense of settling down in Texas, this racist bill SB 147 comes out of nowhere and forbids us from owning a house in a place where we work and live. We are forbidden to live a normal life like any other hardworking immigrants. How come?" Wu asked. "How come we are portrayed as spies, as threats to national security?"

Wu said that instead of joining his son to celebrate Spring Festival, he attended the rally "because I want my children to live in a country where people are judged by their character, not by the color of their skin, or the country they come from".

The same day, another rally was held in downtown Dallas, and protests against the bill have also been staged in Fort Bend County and downtown Houston since the proposed legislation caught the public's attention.

For many Chinese Americans, SB 147 is a reminder of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act that denied Chinese immigrants entry to the US. It also refused to grant citizenship to Chinese already in the nation. The act was not completely repealed until 1968.

In 1913, California passed the Alien Land Law, which prohibited "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning agricultural land or possessing long-term leases for it. The legislation included Chinese, Japanese, Indians and Koreans, and was later amended to forbid them from owning stock in companies.

Alien land legislation soon spread to other states.

Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming enacted laws restricting Asians' rights to hold land in the US. Florida was the last state to repeal such legislation, in 2018.

Martha Wong, the first elected Chinese American member of Houston City Council and a former Texas state Representative, told China Daily in a previous interview that when her family first moved to the Houston Heights area in the 1930s, before she was born, her father was unable to rent an apartment or buy a house. However, he managed to lease a grocery store.

"We lived in the back of the store. It was just an empty space with two beds and a table. At dinner time, my father sat in the only chair, and the rest of us sat on apple crates. We lived there for six years after I was born," Wong said in the interview.

As the civil rights movement was making headway in the US, a customer of Wong's father finally sold his house to him.

Bill 'too broad'

Texas Representative Gene Wu, a Democrat, said at one of a series of news conferences he held from Houston to Austin late last month to protest SB 147: "This is especially painful for the Asian American community because we have been down this road before."

Wu has campaigned to stop SB 147. As a lawyer, he said the bill is too broad, and not much thought has been given to its impact. Under its current wording, it would affect the rights of visa holders and green card holders from China, Japan, the DPRK and Russia.

According to a report by media and publishing company Forbes, about 80,000 non-US citizens born in the four countries are residents of Texas. Some 55,000 are employed, more than 5,000 are self-employed, and over 1,000 have incorporated businesses.

Wu said that under current law, green card holders enjoy the constitutional protection of free speech and property rights, yet SB 147 is attempting to break down that protection for some.

"It basically says that everyone is protected except these people (those from China, Russia, Iran and the DPRK)," Wu told the Chinese community at a virtual meeting during Spring Festival.

The proposed legislation would have major consequences for many people. Besides being unable to own a home, Wu said that in one scenario, a noncitizen spouse would be forced to sell the house if his or her citizen spouse dies. Noncitizen entrepreneurs would also be severely restricted in starting or owning a business.

Even if the bill were modified to exclude permanent residents, and to a greater extent holders of H-1B work visas, it still sends a dangerous message, Wu said.

"It means everyone is equal except for this group of people. Think what that means for your children," he said.

Wu added that some harm has already been caused to the Chinese American community simply by having proposed legislation such as SB 147, and the bill would encourage people to attack Chinese in the US.

"Every time they pass a bill against a certain group, there is a rise in violence against that group," Wu said.

As many people cannot distinguish between Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese or Koreans, hate crimes triggered by bills such as SB 147 would eventually impact the entire Asian community, as witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.