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Rising Voices Alarmed Over MI House Passage of Discriminatory Alien Land Laws

  • Writer: Rising Voices
    Rising Voices
  • May 7
  • 2 min read

DETROIT - Rising Voices is incredibly alarmed by the Michigan House of Representatives’ decision to advance the problematic and unconstitutional “Alien Land Law” bills to the Senate. They mirror the discriminatory Alien Land Laws of the early 20th century that prohibited Chinese and Japanese Americans from owning agricultural land and property. These bills are rooted in a 112-year history of racism and the purposeful exclusion of our immigrant communities by preventing us from creating homes in the United States. 


Rising Voices, along with our coalition partners made up of legal experts, real estate professionals, and civil rights advocates, has been at the forefront of opposing these bills. We have repeatedly warned lawmakers that these bills are not only racist for barring immigrants from owning agricultural property, but they are entirely impractical and unenforceable. We don’t need to guess how this will play out; just look to Florida, where similar laws already face two major lawsuits and fierce backlash.


Despite these warnings, the Michigan House of Representatives actively chose to pass these discriminatory bills out of their chamber. Instead of crafting an inclusive and equitable state budget that meets the needs of all Michiganders, the Michigan House is wasting taxpayer dollars on ill-conceived bills that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars in avoidable litigation. 


These bills were not crafted with the best interests of our communities in mind. It will take all of us to speak out and push back against these racist and xenophobic bills to stop them in the Michigan Senate. We urge every Michigander to contact your state Senator and demand they vote NO on HB 4233 and HB 4234. 


We refuse to let history repeat itself. We refuse to let fear and prejudice feed into the false narrative that immigrants do not belong in Michigan. Immigrant communities are not a threat to Michigan–we are Michigan’s past, present, and future.


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Rising Voices, a project of the Center for Empowered Politics, is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization that seeks to increase the civic participation of Asian Americans in Michigan by developing the leadership, organizing, and power-building capacity of Asian American women, youth and communities. risingvoicesaaf.org 



 
 
 
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Rising Voices is fiscally sponsored by the Center for Empowered Politics, a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization; Rising Voices Fund is sponsored by the Center for Empowered Politics Fund, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

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LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Rising Voices is based in stolen occupied territories called Waawiiyaataanong, named by the Anishinaabeg and includes the Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe (Chippewa), Odawa (Ottawa), and Bodewatomi (Potawatomi) peoples. We acknowledge that Asian American immigration is part of the history of settler colonialism and  that all Indigenous peoples have and continue to be forcibly removed from their homelands. Rising Voices stands in solidarity with Black and Indigenous communities who continue to be systemically excluded and oppressed through the ongoing damaging effects of settler colonialism, genocide, and myths of white supremacy.

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