Florida foreign-owner property law draws ire
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A band of housing advocates are taking aim at a Florida law that prohibits most Chinese people without a green card from purchasing property in the state.
The law also restricts property purchases by Russian, Iranian, North Korean, Cuban, Venezuelan and Syrian nationals.
Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the legislation as a way to protect national security and keep members of the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign agents from “worming” their way into American society. But critics say it’s only fueled illegal housing discrimination.
A Realtor, three advocacy groups and an Asian-American realty association asked a federal judge in Miami this month to bar enforcement, saying the law violates federal civil rights protections.
“This law is one of the most discriminatory housing prohibitions this country has seen since the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968,” Keenya Robertson, president of the Miami-based Housing Opportunities Project for Excellence, said in a statement.
HOPE is joined in the lawsuit by Fair Housing Center of the Greater Palm Beaches, the National Fair Housing Alliance, the Asian Real Estate Association of America and King Realty Advisors.
Hao Li, who runs King Realty and is a member of the Asian Real Estate Association, said he’s taken a financial hit since the passage of the law.
The lawsuit targets 22 elected officials the plaintiffs say are responsible for enforcing the law, including the state secretary of commerce, the Florida Real Estate Commission chair and Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg.
When reached Wednesday, a spokesperson for Aronberg said he had not yet been served the lawsuit and thus had not reviewed it.
Asking about immigration status
The plaintiffs say the law reaches far beyond members of the Chinese Communist Party.
The law prevents purchases by Chinese nationals who are in the United States legally on student visas, seasonal work visas and visas for victims of criminal activity and human trafficking. It also prohibits those domiciled in the six other targeted countries from purchasing property within 10 miles of critical infrastructure, such as an airport or seaport, or within 5 miles of a military installation.
According to the lawsuit, that restriction covers 98.5% of all residential land in the state.
The law’s opponents say it traps Realtors and sellers between federal law and state law. The former prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of national origin. The latter asks Realtors to identify people they believe may be from the targeted countries, inquire about their immigration status and refuse service to those defined as “foreign principals” under the law.
If they knowingly sell or buy a property in violation of the law, the Realtor, seller and purchaser can face criminal penalties.
According to Marc Freeman, a spokesperson for the state attorney’s office in Palm Beach County, no cases concerning the law have been brought to prosecutors’ attention.
Real estate agents in Palm Beach County said the law, which went into effect last July, hasn’t yet had a noticeable effect on home sales.
“It hasn’t affected my business,” said David Serle, president of the Broward, Palm Beaches and St. Lucie Realtors association.
He said most properties sell either to local residents or to people moving to the area from the Northeast, Midwest and California.
Serle said the association takes no position on the new law.