Georgia act on buying land seen as ‘racist’
The Georgia House of Representatives has passed and sent to the state Senate a bill that would ban any “agent” of China from buying farmland or land near military sites, with Democrats criticizing the bill as aiming to “weaponize racism, xenophobia”.
The House bill — SB 420, passed on March 20 — is different from the one passed previously in the Georgia Senate.
The Senate bill would have expanded the ban to all foreign nationals who are not legal US residents, in China and four other countries.
SB 420 is similar to legislation attempted or passed in a few other states that aims to limit land ownership by citizens from China and several other countries.
The vote in the Georgia House was 97-67 along party lines, with most Republican members voting for it and most Democratic members against it.
Even though the bill bans “agent of a foreign government designated as a foreign adversary by the United States secretary of commerce”, the house debate prior to the vote was primarily directed at China. By its definition, the foreign adversaries currently include China, Cuba, Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and Russia.
“An agent” is defined as a person who acts on behalf of a foreign government or a business domiciled in the country. The ban doesn’t apply to residential property.
Democratic Representative Michelle Au questioned how to determine if someone is an agent of an adversarial government and accused the bill of being racist.
Logic questioned
“Who’s doing that investigation? What would trigger that suspicion? And would that be applied equally to everyone looking to buy or lease property?” Au asked. “These bills aim to weaponize racism, xenophobia, and anti-immigrant sentiment while wrapping itself in the cloak of national security and patriotism.”
Representative Sam Park also questioned the logic of the bill. “I remain equally perplexed in that multiple Republican legislators have stated that this bill is focused on Chinese nationals while at the same time China remains one of the top trading partners for Georgia’s agricultural exports that exceeded $5.8 billion in 2023,” he said.
“Passage of this bill will cast a shadow of suspicion on any Asian or Hispanic-looking person who may want to purchase agricultural land or land near a military installation even if that person may be serving in our armed forces,” he said.
Similar land laws were passed last year in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas.
While the court is scheduled to hear the argument in April, it has temporarily blocked its enforcement on the grounds that it might be preempted by federal law.