Texas bill banning residents of China, Iran, North Korea, Russia from owning property isn't law — yet

Yahoo

15-05-2025

Texas state Senate Bill 17, which the House passed on May 9, 2025, aims to restrict citizens of certain nations — China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — from owning property in the United States.
While the bill's language doesn't explicitly forbid all citizens of those foreign countries from owning property, it does ban foreign citizens "acting as an agent or on behalf of a designated country" from owning property. It doesn't specify what "acting as an agent or on behalf of a designated country" means but gives the state attorney general the responsibility to enforce the law.
The law, which would take effect on Sept. 1, 2025, includes exceptions for individuals with U.S. citizenship and for lawful permanent residents. Existing landowners affected by the bill would be able to keep their property but would not be able to purchase or lease additional land.
A controversial amendment passed by the House would allow the governor to add or remove nations or "transnational criminal organizations" to/from the list of banned entities.
Therefore, exactly who would be affected by the law depends on how the attorney general decides to interpret it — in its most broad interpretation, the bill could act as a total ban for foreign landowners without U.S. citizenship or lawful residency from the designated countries.
In May 2025, viral posts appeared on social media claiming Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he would sign a bill blocking citizens of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from owning land in the state.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1102324308590264&id=100064381164299&set=a.636197345202965
The claim was based on Senate Bill 17 (SB17), a state bill aiming to heavily restrict, if not outright ban, certain foreign entities from owning property in the state. Abbott did announce on his social media accounts that he planned to sign it into law.
How strict the proposed restriction on foreign citizens of those countries will depend on how it's interpreted. The bill contained exceptions for individuals with U.S. citizenship (dual citizens) or lawful permanent residency status, meaning that under its broadest interpretation, the bill as written could be used to ban most, but not all, citizens of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from buying land in the state if it went into effect.
Additionally, since laws cannot retroactively penalize individuals, landowners from the aforementioned countries would be able to keep their existing landholdings but would not be allowed to buy more.
In July 2024, Snopes published an article fact-checking a claim that Chinese investors were buying farmland near United States military bases, including in Texas. (We found the claim was quite misleading.) Part of that story involved a Chinese billionaire, Sun Guangxin, attempting to build a wind farm on over 100,000 acres of land in Val Verde County, Texas.
The wind farm never happened, in part because of Texas lawmakers. In response to Sun's planned wind farm, the Texas legislature passed the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act (LSIPA), which banned businesses owned or controlled by individuals from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from operating "critical infrastructure," including the electric grid.
SB17, which passed the Texas House on May 9, could be viewed as an extension of that agenda.
As originally written (amendments will be discussed below), SB17 aimed to restrict land purchases by different individuals and groups associated with "designated countries," which the bill defined as follows:
"Designated country" means a country identified by the United States Director of National Intelligence as a country that poses a risk to the national security of the United States in at least one of the three most recent Annual Threat Assessments of the U.S. Intelligence Community issued pursuant to Section 108B, National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. Section 3043b).
That list currently consists of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, the four countries named in the claim we're fact-checking.
Under a proposed change, the following individuals or organizations would be banned from outright owning land in the state: (The original wording featured an exception that would allow the organizations to lease land for "less than 100 years.")
(1) a governmental entity of a designated country;(2) a company, nongovernmental organization, or other entity that is: (A) headquartered in a designated country; (B) directly or indirectly held or controlled by the government of a designated country; or (C) owned by or the majority of stock or other ownership interest of which is held or controlled by individuals described by Subdivision (4); (3) a company or other entity that is owned by or the majority of stock or other ownership interest of which is held or controlled by a company or entity described by Subdivision (2); or(4) an individual who: (A) is a citizen of a designated country and: (i) is domiciled outside of the United States; or (ii) unlawfully entered the United States at a location other than a lawful port of entry; or (B) is: (i) a citizen of a country other than the United States; and (ii) acting as an agent or on behalf of a designated country.
That last clause — "acting as an agent or on behalf of a designated country" — is where the complication lies, since the bill doesn't define what activities fall under that classification. It gives the state attorney general the power to enforce the law, meaning whatever that person says, goes.
As long as the individual in question is either a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident of the United States (meaning holds a green card), that person would not be at risk, as the bill does contain an exception specifically for those individuals. But for anyone else hoping to buy property in the state, if the AG decides that just being a citizen of a foreign nation makes you an "agent" of that foreign nation, that's an issue — the interpretation may be dubious, but you'd have to prove that in court.
That was not the final version of the bill, however, as legislators added and approved several amendments that changed things about it, including who the law would apply to.
Two separate amendments heavily tightened the 100-year limit on property leases, first to two years, then to one year.
Another amendment added members "of the ruling political party or any subdivision of the ruling political party in a designated country" to the list of people banned from owning land.
A fourth made it such that a citizen of a designated country who lived outside the United States had to be "lawfully present and residing in the United States at the time the individual purchases, acquires, or holds the interest," in order to buy property.
Finally, and perhaps most controversially, an amendment passed that would allow the Texas governor to add or remove "a country or a transnational criminal organization" to/from the banned list after consulting with Texas' public safety director and the Homeland Security Council.
The bill, which would go into effect on Sept. 1, 2025, isn't law just yet (as of the time of this writing) — it, and all of its amendments, have to pass through the state Senate before landing on Abbott's desk to sign. The state Senate, like the state House, is controlled by Republicans. In May, Abbott announced on his X account that he would "soon sign the toughest ban in the U.S." on land ownership by "people from hostile foreign nations."
Izzo, Jack. "Chinese Investors Are Buying Farmland Around US Military Bases?" Snopes, 23 July 2024, https://www.snopes.com//news/2024/07/23/chinese-farmland-military-bases/.
Kamal, By Sameea. "Texas House Advances Bill That Would Prohibit Land Sales to People and Entities from Certain Countries." The Texas Tribune, 9 May 2025, https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/08/texas-foreign-land-purchase-senate-bill-17/.
"Texas and Federal Government Seek to Protect U.S. Infrastructure From Disruption by Foreign Adversaries." Jackson Walker, https://www.jw.com/news/insights-texas-lone-star-infrastructure-protection-act/. Accessed 14 May 2025.
Yu, Issac. "Texas House Passes Bill Banning Chinese Citizens from Buying State Land." Houston Chronicle, 9 May 2025, https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/texas-bill-ban-land-ownership-20317591.php.