Jason Yuan, a second-hand car shop owner, closes the hood of a vehicle after tightening the last nut on the battery terminal – a routine he is all too familiar with.
Texas has long felt like home for him, as a naturalised US citizen born in China. But a recently passed state law is shaking his belief in his chosen homeland.
Texas Senate Bill 17 of 2025, also known as SB 17, will take effect on 1 September, restricting people and companies from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from purchasing and renting property.
Officials say the bill is to protect national security. But to people like Mr Yuan, it sends a discriminatory message – that people who look like him are not welcome in Texas.
“It is anti-Asian, anti-immigrant, and specifically against Chinese-Americans,” said Texas Representative Gene Wu, a Democrat leading the fight against the bill.
The new law could harm businesses in Texas, Wu told the BBC. Companies that could bring millions of dollars of investment to the state are looking for options elsewhere.
SB 17 was proposed earlier this year and signed into law on 20 June by Governor Greg Abbott, who called it the “toughest ban in America” to keep away foreign “adversaries”.
It prohibits certain individuals and organisations of countries designated as national security threats from acquiring property in Texas – including homes, commercial space and agricultural land. It also restricts the length of time for which they can rent property to less than one year.
China is the first country named in the legislation, which accuses Beijing of using “coercive, subversive, and malignant influence activities to weaken the United States” in its bid to surpass the US economically, militarily and politically.
Those who violate the law could face fines of more than $250,000 (£193,000) or jail terms.
US citizens and green card holders are exempt, and valid visa-holders will still be allowed to own one primary residence. But opponents say regardless of the carve-outs, the bill is discriminatory in nature, and anyone deemed to look Chinese could be subject to unfair scrutiny.
In July, the Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (Calda), a non-profit organisation, filed a lawsuit on behalf of three visa-holders from China, arguing that the law was unconstitutional.
The judge later dismissed the case, siding with the state attorney general who said the plaintiffs – who are student-visa and work-visa holders living in Texas – would not be personally affected by the law.
It therefore appears that the three plaintiffs are spared for now. But, for the wider group of visa-holders from the four countries, the lack of clear interpretation of the legal clauses still stokes uncertainty. Calda says it has filed an appeal.
Chinese nationals are the largest group affected by the new law. At least 120,000 people who were born in mainland China were living in Texas as of 2023.
Qinlin Li, a recent graduate of Texas A&M University and a plaintiff of the lawsuit filed against SB 17, said she was shocked when she first learned about the bill.
“If there’s no human rights, then we [are] back to like 150 years ago, we were like the railroad labourers,” Ms Li said.
Ms Li lived in a rented apartment nestled in a quiet residential area in a suburb of Austin. Busy with her work and the lawsuit, she did not have time to search for a new apartment that could meet her needs until two weeks before her lease was due to expire.
She was in the middle of moving when the lawsuit was dismissed. Though the court ruling said she was not affected by the law, she said the entire process had taken a toll on her mental health.
“I think it’s going to block people from studying here and working here because it’s a lot of trouble just to think about it,” Ms Li said.
Jason Yuan has devoted his time outside his car shop work to be a community activist. Before the bill passed, he led rallies outside the Texas capital and testified at a public hearing, telling the committee that the new land bill should be called “the Chinese Exclusion Act of 2025”.
In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law fuelled by anti-Chinese sentiment, was passed. The controversial law barred immigration of Chinese labourers into the US. (BBC News)
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