Ohio's Discrimination Time Machine

An Alien Land Law…in 2025!

So, I ventured up to the Ohio Statehouse yesterday to testify against the terrible SAVE Act equivalent — SB153 — that is now before the Ohio Senate. Thank you to so many other democracy champions—of both parties—for speaking out. I’m encouraged to hear that bipartisan election officials in Ohio also oppose it (although this hearing was of course scheduled on a day when they couldn't attend).

But…most of the people gathered in the hearing room were not there to oppose SB153.

They were there to talk about another bill.

Pleading for Basic Humanity

To set the scene, here’s a photo of the hearing room. Not an empty seat.

Which is why many of us were sent to an overflow room, which amid the testimony, would burst into applause after each speaker.

Here’s a hint of why this large and passionate crowd was there. A bird’s eye view of the scene, with a comment from Senator Bill Demora:

And here’s the bill that Senator DeMora was referencing, which these folks were showing up from across the state to oppose:

That’s right…Ohio politicians sitting pretty in their gerrymandered districts want to ban ownership by legal residents of Ohio—hailing from countries deemed enemies of the United States—of any property within 25 miles of key infrastructure.

But since this infrastructure is defined so broadly as to include railroad tracks, farms, airports and utility poles, one witness displayed a map of exactly what areas they’d be banned from owning property on.

Here was her map:

Sorry for the blurry photo, but the red demarcates where ownership would be banned…of course, you’ll see it covers almost every inch of the entire state.

As one observer said to me: “this gives redlining a whole new meaning.” But in this case—the red line is basically drawn around the entire state.

Witness after witness testified that they’ve called Ohio home for decades, are proud Buckeyes, have worked and paid taxes the entire time, raised children, etc. And simply pled with these legislators to allow them to own/keep homes and property here. They said this went against the very reasons they’re chosen to live in Ohio and America in the first place.

They reminded these legislators of all the terrible wrongs from the past that this bill reminded them of. And I must say….the parallels in both the law and the entire spectacle were so stark as to be painful. Shameful. Other warned that the xenophobia communicated by this bill fueled an atmosphere of anti-Asian and Asian American hate.

Here was a robotics professor in Cleveland, the father of a young American, eloquently pleading not to lose his ability to own property in the city where he lives, teaches and calls home.

And a fifteen-year-old witness stole the show, explaining the painful message this bill sent to young people like her across the state.

A representative from the Dayton Chamber of Commerce warned that this bill would greatly hamper business development in Dayton and across the state.

While most of the testimony today came from the Asian resident and Asian-American community, the bill envelops a number of other nationalities as well…and requires the Secretary of State to update the list of banned countries’ nationals every six months.

Think about that!

Every six months, one official can declare (and change) which legal residents of Ohio have the right to own property here—and keep their property—and which do not. And not based in any way on the character or behavior of these individuals, but simply on the basis of their national origin.

Does that sound like America to you?

An Ugly History

Sadly, it does sound like an America from the darkest days of our past.

As one Miami professor, Hongmei Li, explained to a reporter: “those bills resemble past discriminatory policies like the Alien Land Laws, which effectively prohibited Japanese immigrants from owning land after World War II, and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was a sweeping Chinese immigration ban.”

“‘These bills represent a step backward into the darker history of racism in America, rather than progress toward justice and inclusion,’ Li said. ‘HB 1 and SB 88 attempt to codify racial profiling into law.’”

And for a refresher, here’s a quick history lesson on these odious laws from the past:

I must say, what I witnessed yesterday was truly jarring.

Residents of Ohio, who love this state, pleading not to be stripped of their ability to own a home or property. These were the things we studied in law school. Infamous laws and some infamous cases.

And they are playing out again now.

The Pattern

And of course, the next set of witnesses (including me), were speaking against a different bill that is also being justified by whipped-up xenophobic frenzy. Risking upending our voter registration system, and disproportionally impacting married women, voters of color, and others, on the absolute myth that non-citizens have been voting in this state.

The stats are clear—in 10 years, amid tens of millions voting over that time, 9 people have been indicted for voting as a non-citizen. For the math whizzes out there, that’s 0%.

And those cases clearly occurred due to miscommunication or inadvertently.

The bill’s author asked one witness— “how many cases of illegal non-citizen voting is too much?”

The answer: somewhere more than 0%!

What ugly times we are enduring. Shameful.