A New “Alien Land Law” Proposed in Texas?
Texas Senate Bill 147 would ban citizens of China from buying property in the state. The proposed law would also target citizens of Iran, North Korea and Russia.
The legislation arrives as anti-Asian hate crimes have been on the rise, and critics say it evokes an ugly history of anti-Asian discrimination under state and federal law. As Professor Keith Aoki wrote, states, including California and Washington, in the early twentieth century through the “alien land laws” barred ownership of real estate by “aliens ineligible to citizenship,” which in the West primarily affected Asian immigrants. Texas SB 147 sounds eeily similar
A bill is filed in Texas legislature to ban citizens, governments & entities of China, Iran, North Korea & Russia from purchasing land in Texas.
I will sign it.
This follows a law I signed banning those countries from threatening our infrastructure.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 15, 2023
KJ