AUSTIN – The author behind a bill in the Texas Senate that would ban citizens of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from owning property in Texas said she will not back away from pushing the bill after critics have called it racist and unconstitutional.
Senate Bill 147 from Brenham Republican Sen. Lois Kolkhorst has emerged as one of the more controversial proposals during this year’s legislative session. Kolkhorst’s bill as originally filed would ban citizens of those countries from owning any property in Texas.
The senator last week said she would move away from the total ban, telling a Senate committee she would amend SB 147 to include exceptions for green card holders and dual citizens. But in an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Kolkhorst said further concessions are “on the table,” after a bruising hearing in which more than 100 people spoke against the bill, the vast majority of which were Asian Americans.
“As the bill has developed, I think that we’ve tried to be better about saying you can be from any of these countries and buy a home,” said Kolkhorst, speaking of her plans to soften the bill. “You don’t even have to be here legally.”
Opposition to the bill has swirled around its focus on Chinese citizens, which critics say has stoked hate and racism against Asian Americans. Kolkhorst said that was not her intention, but she would not commit to removing individual countries from the bill.
Hialong Jin, board director of the DFW Chinese Alliance, said that the bill’s intent was racist and that any changes wouldn’t move him to support the bill.
“Discrimination is discrimination,” Jin said. “A racist bill is a racist bill.”
Kolkhorst chose the countries whose citizens she wants to ban from owning property based on a federal national intelligence threat…
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