News Florida banning foreigners from having property

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/flor...investors-borders-on-redlining-125414499.html

Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that went into effect this month, blocking citizens of China, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, North Korea or Russia from buying land in the state. They can only buy real-estate in certain zones of the state- they are prohibited for instance from moving near various areas like airports, shipping ports, power plants, telecommunication, military bases, citing concerns over the "malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party."

Chinese people are targeted for the most harsh treatment of all the groups that have banned. They not only can't own any land, but can be charged with felony crimes and imprisoned for trying to purchase property now, and so can anyone who knowingly sold to them. Chinese citizens who were already owners before this law must now register with the state or be fined 1,000 dollars every day, and the properties and lands they hold can be seized.

Chinese citizens who live in Florida are suing to fight against the property laws, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, DeHeng Law Offices PC, and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, in coordination with the Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance.

Though this has been in the works for awhile, I only heard about this yesterday on an independent news channel. With some searching I found articles about it from major news networks too, but think this should be talked about more nationally.

It seems like there are so many concerning stories about people losing human rights and civil liberties coming from Florida, that it's hard to keep track of them all, the Don't Say Gay laws, the Healthcare discrimination, and now redlining. Scary.

How the hell is Desantis allowed to do this?

Yes, to refuse customers just because of the country they came from is discrimination and should be a violation of the Fair Housing Act and unconstitutional. The ACLU is arguing that, but I have little faith in the court system.

I think a law like this being upheld would not only be wrong morally, but also lose you some money by turning away people who are trying to buy homes and start businesses. But I doubt DeSantis cares about what's good for Florida, and just thinks he can fire up some extremists into backing him in the primary.

Palamon said:

How the hell is Desantis allowed to do this?

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It's kind of what is expected to happen in a deeply red state in a country that has long (or rather always) skewed conservative. A lot of people support this sort of shit and the system does not and never will truly care to stand against it.

VisionofMilotic said:

I think a law like this being upheld would not only be wrong morally, but also lose you some money by turning away people who are trying to buy homes and start businesses. But I doubt DeSantis cares about what's good for Florida, and just thinks he can fire up some extremists into backing him in the primary.

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It could definitely hurt the Florida economy yeah. Same as the attempts in Florida to block immigration to it, as a lot of the workforce of many businesses is immigrants.

Tbh though, I think that DeSantis does, in a twisted sense, care about what's good for Florida, it's just that what the far-right thinks is "good" for people/the country is always objectively the opposite. I mean, yes, part of the motivation is to score points with certain people in order to win election, it's just that I find it to be a....dangerous mindset to think that these people don't truly believe in the shit they spout (and I don't mean to say that you specifically think that it's solely that either, it's just a sentiment that I've personally encountered multiple times, including from my own parents).

The greatest evils often present themselves as your savior(s), fighting for a noble cause. And so a lot of people end up believing the same, that they're doing the right thing and are just trying to stop some great evil. This is why we absolutely cannot continue to try to stop the coming fascism and genocide in the US by protesting and voting, and must remember what has actually stopped them in the past.

DeSantis is a horrible human being and this policy is clearly posturing for political points, but I do think it's important to be specific about what this law actually is. American citizens regardless of ethnicity or country of origin are not affected. A Chinese American has as many rights as an Irish American, etc. It's foreign nationals that are targeted.

Yes, this is a blatantly racist move intended to incite his blatantly racist voting base. But it is also not quite as clear cut as just "Chinese people can't buy land in Florida".

Palamon said:

How the hell is Desantis allowed to do this?

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TBH, I've been asking myself this about all of the terrible things Republicans have done for the past couple of decades (I give that time frame because two decades ago was when I started becoming politically aware). They get away with so much awful stuff and as queer and female I am fed up with it and am finally leaving the red state I have called my home my entire life up until now.

But, yeah, Florida is in a very special category of horrible right now. It scares the heck out of me to see the new lows that Florida and the US is going to. I say "new", but these lows do have precedence in history and where they could go is unspeakable. All I can do is hope that sanity and goodness wins out before too many more people are hurt.

Every time I hear about DeSantis, he's doing some twisted evil shit. I feel so bad for the people in Florida.

I feel even worse for the people brainwashed into thinking this is OK.

I stick by my motto: If it ain't affecting me and my alligator wrangling I don't have a problem with it

French Tobi Kadachi said:

I stick by my motto: If it ain't affecting me and my alligator wrangling I don't have a problem with it

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"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me."

I don't even know where to begin explaining why this is wrong. It's just blatant racism and xenophobia. I'm not one to watch news about the problems of the world because I enjoy not having to stress over things like those. But this one is just too big to ignore. I'm sorry, are we all gonna start banning people from having houses? The only instance I can think of when I eventually go visit Florida is go to see Disneyland and leave forever. What on earth are politicians even doing in that place? I sincerely hope that whoever is in power right no there gets replaced with somebody with more common sense and human decency. But then I fear that if that happens, people are gonna protest that "it's the leftist propaganda that wants to take over our country!"