As immigration lawyers, we’ve been concerned about Louisiana Senate Bill 91 and House Bill 537, which would prevent residents from China and five other countries designated as “foreign adversaries” from owning “immovable property” within 50 miles of military bases or in the state in general. US citizens and green card holders would be exempted, but we’re concerned about the hostile environment such laws would create for migrants who could be assets to Louisiana’s economic infrastructure. And, as we recently wrote, if these bills pass they could be the first step and lay the groundwork for state legislators to further venture out of their lanes and write more ill-conceived or deliberately cruel legislation that targets immigrants.
If the past is prologue, there’s another issue: A lawsuit and the potential cost to the state of defending the laws.
On May 8, Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis signed very similar legislation into law, targeting the same countries:
It also takes similar measures. One bill would prevent citizens of those countries from purchasing land within 10 miles of military bases, and Chinese citizens would be unable to buy more than two acres within five miles of military bases. The premise of the bill is that it will among other things prevent China from controlling Florida’s agricultural infrastructure.
“Florida is taking action to stand against the United States’ greatest geopolitical threat—the Chinese Communist Party,” DeSantis said in a statement.
Writer Li Zhou critiqued the bill for Vox.com, pointing out that it will have impacts far beyond those DeSantis claims. Zhou writes:
The legislation underscores how broad, xenophobic policies can result as a product of the anti-China rhetoric that has grown in the last few years. There’s much that the US should hold the Chinese government accountable for, including horrific human rights violations such as the mass internment of the Uyghur population. But the framing often used by lawmakers regarding issues like economic competition creates an “us versus them” mentality that, historically, has spurred discrimination and racial profiling of Asian Americans.
Predictably, a number of lawsuits followed the signing of the Florida bill because it certainly seems on its face to violate the Constitution and the Fair Housing Act. The American Civl Liberties Union (ACLU) joined with the ACLU of Florida, DeHeng Law Offices PC, and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), and the Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA) to sue to overturn the law.
According to a statement by the ACLU, “Gov. DeSantis has argued that this law is necessary to protect Florida from the Chinese Communist Party and its activities. But this misguided rationale unfairly equates Chinese people with the actions of their government, and there is no evidence of national security harm resulting from real estate ownership by Chinese people in Florida.”
The Texas legislature proposed a similar bill (that died in May) as Conservative politicians try to tap into the cultural grievances that currently animate the Republican Party, and DeSantis is trying to ride that wave to the White House. The lengths they’ll go to mobilize that base would be cartoonish if it weren’t for the real human pain caused by their efforts. People fleeing China, Afghanistan and Maduro’s Venezuela will have the process made harder as big parts of some states would effectively be no-buy zones for them and, as we pointed out, in Louisiana that would include the New Orleans area in its entirety and much of the 1-10 corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
These bills share a desire to show strength at the state level against foreign adversaries—itself a dubious posture—as well as a Cold War paranoia and belief that extreme measures to present that posture are valid regardless of the cost.
“Once they pass it, I won’t be able to buy a house here in Florida,” said Zihua Hé, a 27-year-old consultant and H-1B visa holder from Winter Garden. “It’s a part of my American dream.”
Many of the same consequences will come to pass in Louisiana if the bills pass here.
Photo by Done By Alex on Unsplash.
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