by Grassroots America We The People | Mar 19, 2025 | 89th Session, TXLege
Do Texas Republican Voters Agree? Yes! The March 2024 GOP Primary Ballot said, “Texas should ban the sale of Texas land to citizens, governments, and entities from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.” 95.23% of the voters agreed!
We must stop TX land from being sold to enemy combatants and their agents!
The Problem?
The Problem?
As written, SB 17 by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst does not
adequately prevent hostile nations from acquiring Texas land!
adequately prevent hostile nations from acquiring Texas land!
Position: Oppose SB 17 as written; amend to close loopholes/strengthen with clear enforcement.
Solution | SB 17 must be amended to close the following dangerous loopholes:
Loophole #4: contains no retroactive wording; applies only to FUTURE purchases, leaving existing foreign-owned land unaffected and the security risks in place!
Remedy: Amend the bill – just as Arkansas retroactively protected its land, so too must SB 17!
Loophole #5: lacks Seller or Third-Party Accountability; the bill doesn’t impose penalties on sellers, brokers, or title companies facilitating prohibited transactions, nor does it classify violations as criminal acts.
Remedy: Amend the bill so that any third party who works on behalf of a hostile nation or its agents is punished for a willful criminal act.
The danger – foreign entities could use shell companies, trusts, or U.S.-based intermediaries to obscure their involvement – a tactic seen in past cases like Chinese billionaire Sun Guangxin’s Texas land purchase of 140,000 acres in Val Verde (approx. 7% of all land in the county).
3/19/25 SB 17 Status
To protect the future of Texas, we must PREVENT citizens from hostile nations from acquiring Texas land!
This TX Republican Party Legislative Priority, states, “Texas is Not for Sale | Ban the sale of real property in Texas to governments, entities, and proxies of China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia, and to individuals from these nations who are not legal permanent residents or citizens of the United States; discontinue taxpayer funding and incentives to such foreign governments, entities, and proxies.”
What | Senate Bill 17 by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst aims to restrict land ownership by individuals or entities from countries designated as national security threats (China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea – per the Director of National Intelligence’s Annual Threat Assessment). While we appreciate Sen. Kolkhorst’s leadership on this bill, our analysis finds serious loopholes that will undermine the bill’s effectiveness and endanger the security of Texas!
Why | The Republican Party of Texas and Grassroots America must oppose priority legislation when bills contain dangerous loopholes that undermine the legislation’s purpose and/or when the bills lack penalties and enforcement.
Loophole #1: allows citizens from hostile nations (China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia) to own Texas land if their homebase is not in one of those countries; for example, a Chinese citizen, who is a member of the Chinese Communist Party and lives in cities like London, Singapore, or even Houston, could still purchase land in Texas under this bill!
Remedy: amend the bill to prevent not just residents of hostile nations from accessing Texas land but also citizens of hostile nations, no matter where they reside. No member of the Chinese Communist Party who lives in Mexico (or any other country) should be able to acquire Texas land!
Loophole #2: explicitly allows entities of hostile nations to lease and invest in Texas land; for example, it would allow China to lease farmland near a military base or fund a US-based shell company to purchase it, maintaining influence without direct ownership.
Remedy: We’ve seen how the colonias in Texas, which operate on extended lease agreements, hurt Texans. Likewise, we can’t allow citizens of a hostile nation to buy, lease, or invest in Texas land.
Loophole #3: excludes residential homesteads from its restrictions, allowing our enemies to purchase multiple homesteads in strategic locations (e.g., near critical infrastructure).
Remedy: We must bar any exemptions of homesteads from this security legislation.
Loophole #6: imposes minimal penalties, lacks strong enforcement, and lacks detailed mechanisms for proactive monitoring of funding to trace complex ownership structures.
Remedy: Our law enforcement agencies, including the Texas Attorney General’s office, must be able to monitor transactions for illegal land acquisition, investigate and prosecute.
With opposition growing due to our publicizing the bill’s weaknesses, Senate leadership rushed this bill to the floor for a vote on 3/19/25 and passed it without amendments. The bill was received in the House on 3/20/25.
We have commitments from various State Senators that they will close these loopholes through Senator Tan Parker’s bill SB 2117 | Relating to the establishment of the Texas
Committee on Foreign Investment to review certain transactions involving certain foreign entities, creating a civil penalty. The identical House companion bill is HB 5007, by Lambert.
War Room Texas: Interface Editor Note: Credit for original article to Grassroots America We The People Website https://gawtp.com/2025/03/89th-session-prevent-hostiles-from-buying-texas-land/ | March 19 2025
Joint project: State Republican Executive Committee Chair Deborah Fite; Christin Bentley, SD 1 SREC; Gaylyn Devine, SD 11 SREC and JoAnn Fleming, Grassroots America
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