State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) wants to ban the governments and citizens of several enemy nations – including Iran, Russia, North Korea, and China – from owning land in Texas. In yesterday’s Texas Minute, we asked readers if they thought her proposal should become law.
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Here is a sample of the responses we received from our readers.
“For the life of me, I can’t figure out why this is allowed in Texas or in any of the United States! Absolutely no good can come of it!” – Karen Lane
“Only citizens should be allowed to buy U.S. soil.” – Gary Ludwig
“Citizens should be free to sell their property to anyone they want, as a consequence of their ownership right to that property. There is no acceptable standard for defining foreign countries that are ‘enemies’ of the United States, particularly in the absence of declared or undeclared wars. Should we prohibit China? Venezuela? Vietnam? Germany? There are already enough laws available to prevent the land being used for illegal, injurious, and treasonous activities, and those are what this prohibition would be infringing freedom to prevent.” – Wayne Stargardt
“Stop enemies from buying Texas land. Americans and Texans are regulated, penalized and taxed out of existence, yet foreigners and enemies come in here and buy up precious land to do what with? We will have nothing left for our own future generations if we don’t stop selling off all our heritage.” – Nancy Wood
“Selling a birthright has an ancient precedent. It works out well for the buyer; the seller regrets being stupid.” – Mark Juelg
“Many other countries do not permit non-citizens to purchase land or in some cases even houses. Even Canada just instituted such new rules. Why should we be less protective of ourselves?” – Albert Greech
“We in Texas should not even be having this discussion! If ever there was a proud and independent state it is Texas! Why would Texans succumb to foreign intervention of any kind?” – Kathy Fisher
“Actually, I think all foreign nationals should be banned from buying land in Texas. They are driving up the real-estate values, making it harder for citizens to buy property. In most countries, we are not allowed to buy property, so why should they…” – Wm. Douglas Van Syckle, USN (Ret.)
“For someone who was born in the former Soviet Union…NO SINGLE INDIVIDUAL OWNED A CENTIMETER OF LAND. It all belonged to the ‘rulers’ in the Kremlin. At least the Commies would never permit foreign countries to purchase land in their ‘paradise.’” – John Makow
“Property rights need to be absolute. We do not need another government agency approving property sales. If a property owner engages in nefarious activities on their property, they risk forfeiture of their property. That is a proper role of government.” – Mike Tayloe
“Of course we should ban our enemy nations from purchasing land in Texas. They only want to harm our nation in any way they can, so land purchases would aid that immensely! Do you really think China or Russia would allow an American to purchase some of their land? Insane that any Texan would allow this!” – Phyllis N. Peek
“If no U.S. citizen or corporation is allowed to outright own property in China or Mexico, or Switzerland, then no citizen or entity from those countries should be allowed to own any property of any kind in the U.S. Further, if they do own property, it will receive the highest property tax rate of owned property (e. g. no cushy, squishy farm exemptions or the hoax-founded carbon off-set credits). And, absolutely no transfer of mineral rights on foreign-owned property to non-citizen owners.” – Patrick Bell
“NO foreign entity should be allowed to own real property in Texas or any other state. If any potential buyer or existing owner of property is found to be more than 50% owned by a foreign person or entity, they should be given some reasonable amount of time to transfer ownership before their interest would be auctioned off, similar to a tax lien auction.” – Kevin Wade
“This seems like a no-brainer, and since all-important mineral rights can be bought & sold, ban that too.” – Tim Rhodes
“As much as I want to keep hostile nations off Texas soil, I don’t see how this could be enforced. If anything, it would push the problem deeper undercover with shell corporations, proxy buyers, and other fraud. Better to have your enemies in the open.” – Jason Kerr
“If the property owned by the foreign governments were taxed at 100% of value per year, it might discourage the practice.” – James Moyer
“I see a practical need for this in today’s environment, but I think it’s a slippery slope. The term ‘enemy states’ implies that some acid test should be used to define who’s an enemy and who’s a friend. It may be easy to distinguish in the short term, but what about the long term?” – Thomas Camardo
“It appears to me that a landowner should be a citizen of the country in which the land exists. Otherwise, the property owner could have conflicting interests to the detriment of the country containing the property.” – Arthur Potter
