AUSTIN – The Texas House gave initial approval to a bill Thursday that would ban citizens of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from owning properties in Texas, moving the state one step closer to creating barriers for property ownership to people from countries deemed hostile.
On a largely partisan vote of 85-60, the House approved the bill, making it the latest Republican-led policy once considered too extreme for the House now on a direct path to becoming law as the chamber shifts further to the right.
“We must not allow oppressive regimes who actively seek to do us harm to seize control and dictate their terms over our economy, supply chain and our daily lives,” said Rep. Cole Hefner, R-Mount Pleasant, the bill’s sponsor.
The bill has drawn disdain from many in Texas’ Asian American community, who have called it racist and a proposal that could unintentionally subject them to violence.
“It is signalling that Asian people are dangerous and enemies of the state,” said Lily Trieu, co-executive director of the advocacy group Asian Texans for Justice. “It’s xenophobic.”
The bill targets hostile nations named in a 2025 threat assessment report from the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. Companies, government organizations and citizens from those countries would no longer be able to purchase any property in Texas.
It would empower the Texas Attorney General’s office to investigate reports of property owned by hostile nations. Prosecutors in the office could take civil action to seize the property under a court order.
The property would then be placed under an appointed receiver, who would oversee its sale and the distribution of proceeds to the prohibited buyer.
The bill’s initial passage came after a fiery debate, which ultimately led to a proposal that created exceptions for non-citizens from hostile nations who entered the country legally, whether through student and work visas or the asylum process. Republicans also amended the bill to give the governor’s office unilateral power to declare additional nations subject to the ban.
While four countries are subject to the ban, the conversation revolved mainly around China. Rep. Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat who immigrated from China as a child, led his party’s opposition to the bill.
Wu spoke about the history of Chinese immigrants in the U.S., argued that a person should not be punished for the government actions of their nation of origin, and that the bill was a preamble to racist attacks against Asian Americans.
“Nobody around here knows the difference between Chinese and Taiwanese or Japanese and Vietnamese,” Wu said. “When the attacks come, when the hate crimes start, it will be against all Asians – everybody with [an] Asian face.”
That argument rang hollow with House Republicans, who hold a solid majority of the 150-member chamber.
“This body was charged by our voters to do one simple thing: Don’t allow the enemies of our country to systematically buy up our most precious natural resource, the land under our feet that was bought by the blood of Texas patriots,” said Rep. Andy Hopper, R-Decatur.
Rep. Angie Chen Button, a Garland Republican born in Taiwan, said she has experienced racism and understood why many in the Asian American community oppose the bill. However, Button said she was for the bill.
“I am supporting this bill because it is to protect all countries, freedom, liberty, national security,” Button said. “But I do have to say that please bear in mind, a lot of people still have that fear in their heart.”
All Democrats’ attempts to alter the bill were rejected. And the bill was given initial approval after about six hours of debate.
Leaders of multiple Chinese American organizations in North Texas have said they are considering challenging the bill in federal court.
In Florida, Chinese community members challenged a similar law enacted in 2023 that limits land ownership by people from multiple countries, including China. The law has been temporarily halted by a federal appeals court.
Cecelia Hampton, who operates a realty firm in Frisco, said she watched with her fingers crossed as Texas House legislators voted on the bill.
Plano resident Hengrui Qu has participated in multiple rallies and demonstrations in Austin and in Dallas in the months leading up to Thursday’s vote.
Qu, who became a citizen in 2017, said he bought his home while he was in the country under an H1-B visa. His children were born and raised in the U.S., and the 47-year-old is enjoying early retirement.
“I’ve realized the American dream,” said Qu, who is Republican and has been active in local politics for 12 years.
The bill will strip future people of Chinese descent from doing the same, Qu said.
Proposals like Senate Bill 17 aimed at limiting Chinese landownership have challenged his loyalty to the GOP, however. Still, he plans to attend Republican conventions to urge members of the party to differentiate between the Chinese Communist Party and the people under its rule.
“The C.C.P. is the C.C.P, OK? It has a bad history, but the legal immigrant visa holders here aren’t related to that,” Qu said.
