I'm definitely not convinced of the national security reason. However, if Texas has been having the same issue as California, with a lot of foreigners buying up property but not living in it, then something to prevent that is useful.

And to that end, it sounds like this would do it. Though, it also catches undocumented immigrants which may have been the primary focus. You must be legal and you must be living in the US. The former shouldn't matter IMO. People need places to live.

[–] HailSeitan@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I doubt there’s any concern for housing availability driving this, otherwise they would tax or regulate vacation homes, Airbnb, etc. This is just screwing over permanent residents without citizenship in order to look tough on China.

[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah keep the homestead process and tax the hell out of people that dont live in the homes they don't live in.