Officials denounce alien land laws for racial bias

The series of new legislations in various US states restricting land purchases by Chinese citizens are racially biased and harming Asian Americans, say two Chinese American elected officials.

"Because of the way these laws are constructed, it turns out that if you have a funny-sounding last name like mine, then you can be subject to a higher kind of scrutiny by an entire real estate chain," said Ted Lieu, a congressional representative from California, at a recent online discussion on land ownership exclusion laws, organized by the Committee of 100 and APA Justice.

"To me, that's just flat-out unconstitutional because, all of a sudden, anyone with an Asian last name is going to have to present additional documentation or be asked questions that a German American would not be asked," Lieu continued.

According to the Committee of 100, since last year, 252 bills restricting property ownership by foreign entities — known as the alien land laws — have been considered in the US. These include 215 bills in 40 states and 37 in Congress.

So far, 36 bills have passed and were signed into law in about two dozen states. Of those, 16 bills specifically prohibit Chinese citizens from purchasing or owning some form of property.

The alien land laws are essentially anti-immigrant, said Texas State Representative Gene Wu who has led the fight to defeat such bills in Texas last year. Wu was elected the chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus earlier this month.

"A lot of people ask what's driving this, what's the impetus behind it? It pains me to say that a lot of this is not just anti-Asian hate, but anti-immigrant hate. More to the point, it's anti-minority hate," Wu said.

What is really driving those laws is not truly a national security concern but "the idea that there are too many immigrants in this country, and America was a country that was really given by God to white people, and that anybody who dispossesses white people is now an enemy", he added.

The anti-Chinese laws are not limited to land ownership, he said. In Florida, a new law restricts the ability of the state universities to hire Chinese research assistants. In Texas, a failed bill filed last year would prohibit Chinese people from studying in Texas. Wu assumed that the bill will be filed again next year.

Historically, the US law has restricted employment of the Chinese, he said.

"Why are there so many Chinese restaurants? There are more Chinese restaurants than McDonald's in America by wide margins. And the answer is, because for a hundred years, states had laws that said Chinese people can only wash people's clothes or make their food. Two of the hardest, most dirty jobs there is."

Federal level

Wu said the Project 2025 — policy recommendations by the right conservative — is about immigrants, more specifically the Chinese community. It is not a mere wish list because some on the list have already come true such as the alien land laws. With the incoming new government, Wu said he is afraid such laws might be enacted at the federal level.

He further cautioned that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are likely to fix the problem, adding the community needs to work with other minority communities to fight for their rights.

"Our liberties and our rights are not written into stone. Every generation must fight for them. And this has proven itself true to this day," he said.

Edgar Chen, recounting laws excluding citizenship rights from Japanese and Chinese immigrants such as the Page Act of 1875 and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, explained how the alien land laws, even constructed under a seemingly neutral term of US citizens, have often been racially discriminatory.

"The Naturalization Act of 1790, going back to the roots of the founding of the republic, stated that only free whites could naturalize. The 14th Amendment after the Civil War gave citizenship to free blacks and black Americans. Again, who has been historically left out of the conversation for citizenship has been the Asian community," said Chen, who is special policy adviser to the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

The first alien land law was passed in California in 1913, and it was not until 2018 that Florida finally removed the last bits of the century-old alien land law language from its constitution, only to have such laws reenacted five years later.

"We've seen this move before. We've seen this history. We've lived this history. We thought this was over and done, but here we are," Chen said.