Chinese nationals and residents as well as a real estate company sue Florida state officials
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Chinese nationals and residents as well as a real estate company sue Florida state officials over the prohibition on home ownership
In an effort to overturn a rule that Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, signed into law this month that forbids nationals of China and other nations from purchasing real estate, a group of Chinese residents and a real estate brokerage have filed a lawsuit in federal court.
The plaintiffs, Yifan Shen, Zhiming Xu, Xinxi Wang, and Multi-Choice Realty LLC, claim that the law violates the equal protection and due process rights of hostile foreign citizens under the US Constitution’s 14th amendment. They are suing three state officials to prevent the law from taking effect and to recover the costs incurred in the legal battle.
DeSantis described the bill as a step to curtail the Chinese Communist Party’s “influence in the state” and it is scheduled to go into effect on July 1.
The identified defendants are Patricia Fitzgerald, chair of the Florida Real Estate Commission, Meredith Ivey, acting Florida secretary of economic opportunity, and Wilton Simpson, Florida’s agricultural commissioner.
The measure, which Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed in early May, is scheduled to go into force in July
In their case, the plaintiffs stated that they would “be required to postpone the purchase of new residences, register their current properties with the state under threat of harsh penalties, and suffer the loss of considerable business. According to the legislation, anyone of Chinese heritage who wants to purchase property in Florida is under suspicion.
In addition, the law “intrudes on the federal government’s authority to supervise foreign affairs, foreign investment, and national security; and it recalls the unjust animus of similar state laws from decades past – laws that were ultimately overturned by courts or repealed by legislatures,” the complaint continued.
The laws also included the designations of “countries of concern” for Syria, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.
Requests for comment on the situation were not immediately answered by the Florida Department of State.
The “alien land laws” that were passed in the early 20th century that largely targeted people of Chinese and Japanese heritage and forbade them from holding land are among the earlier actions mentioned in the case. All of these laws were declared to be unlawful and overturned decades ago.
It also made allusion to the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited the majority of immigration from the nation named after the law from 1882 until 1943.
The US is seeing an increase in state programs meant to offset perceived concerns coming from China.
Along with the restriction on land purchases, DeSantis also signed two other laws relating to China: one that forbids schools and government servers from hosting the Chinese video-sharing app TikTok and other Chinese apps, and another that forbids state universities from accepting any funding from China.
The agricultural, forestry, aquaculture, and rural development committees of the Louisiana House of Representatives overwhelmingly endorsed the legislation last week, and the house is set to vote on a bill resembling Florida’s land law on Tuesday.
And this week, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill into law that fully outlaws TikTok in the state in the north of the United States, making it the nation’s strictest regulation on the popular app’s use.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Florida, DeHeng Law Offices PC, and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), in collaboration with the non-profit Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA), are representing the plaintiffs in the Florida case.
According to Clay Zhu, an attorney with DeHeng and co-founder of CALDA, “all Asian-Americans will feel the stigma and the chilling effect created by this Florida law, just like the discriminatory laws did to our ancestors more than 100 years ago,” “We won’t turn around.”
Bethany Li, the legal director of the AALDEF, also linked Florida’s statute to discriminatory actions the US government has done against Asian populations.
We have repeatedly seen how policies in the name of national security have harmed Asian-Americans, Li said. Examples include immigration restrictions, the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and post-September 11 surveillance.
“Our community will continue to experience racism, violence, and the erosion of rights if the discriminatory impacts are not called out,”
The plaintiffs also emphasized that the new law only permits the purchase of one residential real property by a Chinese national with a valid non-tourist visa or who has been granted asylum, and only if the property is less than two acres in size and is not located close to a military installation.
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