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Voters asked to void racist property law

By Barbara Ferry |

The New Mexican 10/18/06

New Mexico voters are being asked -- for the second time -- to strip obsolete language from the state Constitution that was aimed at barring Asian immigrants from owning property.

Constitutional Amendment 1 on the Nov. 7 election ballot would remove an amendment adopted in 1921 that prohibited "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning real estate.

"Ineligible aliens" was code language for Asian immigrants, who were excluded from citizenship by the federal laws of the time, according to Jack Chin, a professor of law at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who studies the history of Asian exclusion laws in the United States.

California was the first state to pass such a law in 1913, and others, particularly those in the West and South, followed. The California attorney general at the time wrote that the laws would limit Asian immigration "for they will not come in large numbers and long abide with us if they may not acquire land."

New Mexico and Florida are the only two states in the country with so-called "alien land" provisions still on the books, Chin said. While federal laws now protect Asian and other immigrants against discrimination, the language is a reminder of a dark chapter of the state's history, Chin said.

A similar measure to amend the New Mexico Constitution was on the ballot in 2002, but voters defeated it 54 percent to 46 percent.

State Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, who has championed the constitutional change, attributed the failure of the amendment four years ago to lack of voter education on the issue.

He said in 2002, the amendment was worded in a way that was confusing and might have led some voters to think they were voting on a terrorism bill.

"The legalistic language was a huge obstacle," McSorley said. And lack of public information about the measure meant many voters were seeing the proposal for the first time in the voting booth, he said.

McSorley said many voters did not cast a vote either way on the amendment.

This time around, the wording avoids the use of the word alien and says only that the proposal would protect the rights of all persons to acquire and possess real property.

In 2000, Chin worked with law students to prepare a report for states about racist language still on their books. The report found four states, Wyoming, Kansas, Florida and New Mexico, with "ineligible alien" land laws. Wyoming and Kansas have since removed the language through legislation, he said.

In New Mexico, any change to the Constitution must first be passed by joint resolution of both the House and Senate and then by a majority of voters, said Raúl Burciaga, assistant director of drafting at the Legislative Council Service.

While alien land laws are now moot, they had severe consequences at the time they were enacted, Chin's report found. Both Asian Americans and non-Asians were prosecuted for buying or selling land. In some cases, Chin said, relatives of Asian American soldiers who were killed in World War II were unable to use their insurance settlements to buy property.

Chin agreed that voter ignorance, rather than prejudice against Asians, defeated the amendment four years ago.

"I can't believe the people of the state of New Mexico want racial prejudice enshrined in their fundamental law, Chin said. "That New Mexico still has this law has to be an oversight," he said, "but it's an oversight that brings back bitter memories, even today, for Asian Americans."