Speaker tells of dangers of alien land laws

Gary Nakamura, national vice-president of the Japanese American Citizens League (JCL), joined a rally Sunday against Texas land bills that was organized by the Chinese American community in Houston's Chinatown. He shared his family's story on the serious consequences of such alien land laws.

"My late grandparents could not own land in the state of California, even though they came to this country back in 1902 because of the original set of alien land laws," Nakamura told the crowd. "That affects all of us in so many ways. It affects our ability to create generational wealth. It affects our ability to really just have a decent life and pursue the American dream."

Those alien land laws across the United States led to "distrust, misinformation that targeted my Japanese-American community, which ultimately resulted in the mass incarceration of over 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, including my late father, who, by the way, was a highly decorated US Army veteran in World War II", Nakamura continued.

Similar rallies were also held in Dallas and Austin over the weekend. Elected officials and leaders from 46 Texas and 30 some national organizations — including civil rights groups from the African, Iranian and Latino communities, joined the rallies, according to the organizers. US Representative Al Green from Houston joined the rally in Dallas.

Currently, there are more than a dozen land bills in the Texas Legislature to restrict Chinese nationals and entities from purchasing real property in Texas. Of which, SB 17, "relating to the purchase of or acquisition of title to real property by certain aliens or foreign entities", was recently swiftly passed in the Senate, and a similar bill, HB 17, is set for voting soon.

Two years ago, strong protests from the Asian American community prevented similar bills from passing, but now similar bills are coming back in more stringent forms, said Gene Wu, minority leader of the Texas House of Representatives.

"We thought they listened. And then we came back this year and testified in the Senate again, reminding them that these types of laws were discriminatory. And they promised us that they would fix it, they would change it. And they made it even worse. They made it even more dangerous for us," said Wu.

Wu, who led the fight to defeat the Texas alien land law SB 147 two years ago, is again at the forefront of the fight. He said that the current bills stipulate that "the government can come and just file a lawsuit against your property without letting you know, without letting you even have a chance to fight for it. And they can just take it."

A lawyer by profession, Wu said the provision would create an in rem action which is rare but was used before against Japanese Americans during World War II when they were rounded up. In rem refers to a focus on property rather than individuals.

"These same types of provisions were used to take their property, bank accounts, cars, farms houses, everything without asking," Wu said, warning that the current bills could be pathways to a second Chinese Exclusion Act or become a Chinese internment similar to what Japanese Americans had suffered.

In a zoom meeting after the rally, Wu said many people in the community think that they will be fine because the bills target only Chinese nationals. He warned that citizenship will not protect the community with these types of laws because when people of Japanese ancestry were rounded up at gunpoint into trucks and trains, two-thirds of them were American citizens, born and raised here. "Citizenship does not matter," he said.

Wu said there are at least a half-dozen bills that directly target China and other specific countries. "The next is banning Chinese people from working in technology, in academics, in research, in medicine. Next is banning people completely and saying, if you're Chinese, you have to get into the truck and go to the concentration camp. This is all coming."

Alice Chen, Mayor Pro Tem of Stafford, Texas, warned of the danger of such bills by using the Chinese metaphor of "boiling frog in warm water" — if a person is in a gradually deteriorating environment, they will not perceive the danger if the change is slow — until it is too late.

Kenneth Li, nicknamed "the mayor of Chinatown" for his many civic roles involving the development of Houston's Chinatown, said some authors of the bills are from Houston and its suburbs.

"Don't give them money, don't vote for them, and find somebody else to vote against them, and get them out," Li told people at the rally.

Austin Zhao, partner and vice-president of Transworld Business Advisors of South & West Texas, New Mexico, and Wyoming, was one of more than 200 people who showed up at the Houston rally.

"Many people in the community haven't realized the potential impact on Chinese Americans that such bills would bring. It's not about land; it's political discrimination against all Chinese here, and it will negatively impact us and our future generations," Zhao said.

Zhao said Chinese Americans tend to be less politically engaged. "You have to fight for your own rights. Political participation is very important and powerful. If you are not at the table, you are under the table," he said.

mayzhou@chinadailyusa.com