Despite opposition from NIAC and organizations like the ACLU, the White House, and a majority of Congressional Democrats, the House of Representatives passed a bill last week demonizing Iranian, Chinese, Russian, and other immigrant communities in America for purchasing real estate.
H.R. 9456, The Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024, is part of a larger xenophobic campaign to impose “property bans” on the basis of a person’s national origin or heritage. Bans that have passed at the state level have barred green card or visa holders from “adversarial nations” from purchasing land or real estate, though some proposals may also target U.S. citizens and can give legal cover to ethnically profile Iranian Americans or increase the difficulty of purchasing property.
While it is more than reasonable for the federal government to monitor and assess purchases of American agricultural land made by foreign governments, H.R. 9456 goes beyond just foreign governments by including all “foreign persons” from Iran, China, Russia, and North Korea, which would verifiably encourage racial profiling against these immigrant communities.
Notably, House Republicans had declared last week as “China Week” on Capitol Hill, advancing a number of bills – including H.R. 9456 – supposedly aimed at toughening the U.S. posture toward “adversarial nations.” However, rather than targeting governments, this legislation is aimed at profiling Chinese, Iranian, Russian and North Korean nationals. As we have seen with the introduction of broader alien land laws at both the state and federal level, geopolitical tensions continue to fuel significant threats to civil liberties on American soil.
While this bill is just the latest iteration of a disturbing, nationwide trend of modern-day alien land laws, the majority of the House Democratic Caucus vote against this bill. Ahead of the bill’s vote, Members of Congress cited NIAC and others in vocally opposing this legislation on the House floor, classifying it as an effort to target and discriminate against certain communities solely based on their national origin. Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) recounted his own family’s painful experience with the 20th century alien land laws that prevented them from buying certain land – and that they ultimately lost the land they were allowed to purchase because they were being held in the United States’ infamous internment camps. Rep. Takano attempted to recommit the bill back to committee – to avoid such a swift vote on this issue without proper review from relevant committees – but was unfortunately unsuccessful against the House Republican majority.
However, after nearly two years of advocating and organizing at the state and Federal level against this new-age threat against the civil rights of our community and others, we are grateful to see more and more of our elected leaders stand against these types of proposals that would establish a dangerous precedent and even a slippery slope to further discrimination. We urge the Senate to reject the language passed by the House of Representatives and only consider common sense approaches that do not treat national origin as a security threat. We will continue to push back against modern alien land laws and emphasize that it is completely possible and reasonable to address valid national security concerns without directly undermining the individual civil rights of immigrant communities.
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