Texas House advances Senate Bill 17 to bar certain immigrants from owning land in state

Yahoo

09-05-2025

Legislation aimed at barring people and agents of countries deemed hostile to U.S. interests from owning land in Texas leaped closer to becoming law after House Republicans late Thursday and again on Friday beat back several attempts by Democrats to derail or soften the proposal.
The House sponsor of Senate Bill 17, Mount Pleasant Republican Rep. Cole Hefner, said the legislation would make Texas and the nation safer because "adversarial nations," as identified by the U.S. national intelligence director — China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — could not become Texas landowners.
"Countries on this list have demonstrated their desire to harm this country and present a significant national security risk," Hefner said Thursday during the hourslong debate in the lower chamber.
Under an amendment added to the bill, the governor would have the power to add or remove countries from the list of those sanctioned by the measure.
Hefner and his allies in the House rebuffed assertions from several Democratic members that the measure would unfairly prevent immigrants from those nations from putting down roots in the country that has given them refuge from repression.
"Let's be clear: These people are not enemies of the state. They came to Texas seeking the freedom and liberty this bill supposedly tries to protect. ... I know because I was one of them," said Rep. Hubert Vo, D-Houston, who told his colleagues of how his family escaped a Communist regime in Vietnam as his Democratic colleagues stood behind him in support. "Texas should proudly welcome those who play by the rules, not brand them as traitors."
The bill, which passed the House with several modifications on a 85-60 vote, now returns to the Senate, which can accept those changes or ask for a conference committee to iron out the differences. Once both chambers agree on a final product, SB 17 would be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott to be signed into law.
The bill would grant the attorney general jurisdiction to investigate violations of the land law, and courts could order the divestiture of property acquired by restricted individuals or organizations. Violators could be liable for a fine of $250,000 or more.
Before a vote on final passage Friday, Hefner falsely asserted that current visa holders would be exempt from the bill's restrictions on landownership, saying "If you're lawfully present at the time of the purchase of this property, then you're fine."
Green card holders will be able to buy homes in Texas, but temporary visa holders are not explicitly exempt from the bill's restrictions. Furthermore, the bill as amended, only allows for leases up to one year at a time. The Senate's version would have allowed 99-year leases — "a loophole you could drive a Mack truck through," Lewisville Republican Rep. Mitch Little said.
The Senate's version of the bill carved out an exception for an individual's primary residence, but the House previously stripped that provision in a committee substitute. The House further tweaked the bill with a handful of floor amendments.
SB 17 garnered bipartisan support in the upper chamber and passed March 19 by a 24-7 vote. A similar House companion bill was heard in an April meeting of the lower chamber's Homeland Security, Public Safety and Veterans' Affairs Committee but has not received a vote.
SB 17 is the latest push in a yearslong campaign to restrict foreign land ownership, with a similar proposal dying in the House during the 2023 legislative session. Proponents of the restrictions say the issue is a matter of national security, often citing concerns that individuals or businesses loyal to foreign governments could buy up large swaths of land in the U.S., posing a risk to agriculture and critical infrastructure.
Around half of U.S. states have passed laws restricting foreign investment in domestic land, with 12 codifying restrictions in 2024, according to the National Agricultural Law Center. Arkansas became the first state to enforce such a law in 2023.
About 5.3 million acres, or 3.41% of private agricultural land in Texas is foreign-owned, according to a Texas Farm Bureau report that cites the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Of that, a majority is owned by ally nations like Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany. China makes up 3.6% of Texas' foreign-owned land.
House and Senate hearings on land ownership legislation have drawn dozens of witnesses, many opposed to the bills, who testified for hours on SB 17 and its House companion bill. Democratic lawmakers who spoke ahead of the House committee hearing argued that the proposal is discriminatory and said it mirrors the prologue to the World War II-era incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese descent in America. Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, repeated those concerns during Thursday's debate.
"Why my community is so angry is that this exact thing has been done before — done for the same reasons, using the same rhetoric, passing the same laws, and against the exact same communities," said Wu, who is Asian-American. "The fear isn't just about this legislation. For me, the fear is about the community as a whole."
But Republican House members, including Garland Rep. Angie Chen Button, who immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan, maintained that the bill is not discriminatory but a matter of protecting Texas.
"I am supporting this bill because it is to protect our country's freedom, liberty, national security," Button said. "This is not my mother land, but this is my chosen land, and I'm here to protect the liberty and freedom of my chosen land."
Staff writers John C. Moritz and Bayliss Wagner contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas House passes bill barring certain immigrants from owning land