The amended bill is a dramatically watered-down version of an earlier proposal that sought to ban land and home purchases by citizens of China and three other countries.
from Asian American groups and others who said it would make it impossible for dual citizens and other immigrants to buy homes or start businesses., put forward several amendments that she said were aimed at those concerns while protecting national security, including new language that limits the restrictions to specific types of land and applies to purchases, not leases.
“This ensures that we strengthen our food security, our energy security and our national security,” Kolkhorst said after roughly two hours of debate. “...You can come and buy your company. You can have your restaurant.” Kolkhorst has said SB 147 builds on legislation from 2021, when state lawmakers unanimously voted to ban Texas businesses and government officials from making infrastructure deals with interests from the four countries. That legislation was filed in response to a Xinjiang-based real estate tycoon’s purchase of roughly 140,000 acres for a wind farm in Del Rio, a small border town near Laughlin Air Force Base.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Chinese investors own less than 1% of total foreign-held acreage in the United States. Investors from Russia, Iran and North Korea collectively own less than 3,000 acres.Kolkhorst has softened the bill’s language.
Those changes, which have since been dropped, did little to assuage concerns among opponents, who said it would increase discrimination by associating all Asian Americans — one of the state’s fastest-growing population segments — with the Chinese government.
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