Opinion: Bill to restrict foreign land ownership in SC is 'bumper-sticker politics'
In response to the downed Chinese balloon over Myrtle Beach, the South Carolina Senate passed a controversial bill barring and restricting some foreign nationals from owning land. The bill now goes to the South Carolina House of Representatives for consideration.
For its supporters, the bill would answer concerns about potential espionage on South Carolina soil by America’s enemies. In reality, though, the bill is nothing more than bumper-sticker politics masquerading as an actual policy. While doing nothing to help the security of South Carolina, such legislation discourages foreign investment in our most rural areas while harming the legal immigrants we should be supporting the most.
The bill would amend SC Code 27-13-30, which already limits foreigners from owning more than 500,000 acres within the state, by adding a provision restricting land ownership from countries designated by the United States Secretary of Commerce as being “foreign adversaries.” If the citizen has a green card, i.e., the citizen is an immigrant, he or she could not acquire more than 5 acres of land. The bill would not count toward businesses in operation prior to Dec. 31, 2022.
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The bill’s supporters say that these foreign nationals might be trojan horses intent on spying. Not mentioned, though, is how restricting land ownership has an impact at all on espionage. The bill could have been narrowly tailored to restrict property ownership near US bases or government facilities – places that should rightfully be concerned. Instead, it indiscriminately targets all.
Spies from adversarial countries pursue America through technology theft and disinformation. Property ownership for the sake of just owning property is not in any spy playbook. And if it were, such a bill would be easily circumvented.
And if the issue is mere fear of property ownership by foreign nationals from China or Russia, then why, as State Sen. Dick Harpootlian pointed out, is there an exemption for companies already here? Since 1999, Haier America, a Chinese-owned refrigerator manufacturing company, has invested hundreds of millions in rural Kershaw County and created hundreds of jobs. As recently as 2021, that company has only expanded. Chinese-owned companies have invested in rural counties throughout South Carolina such as Clarendon, Lancaster, Oconee, Anderson, Pickens, and York. What makes these companies OK, but future investments off limits?
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Beyond how this bill would impact businesses, however, the worse impact is on immigrants. By prohibiting green- card holders from owning more than 5 acres, this bill harkens back to the “Alien land laws” in the early 20th century. Those laws, rooted in naked xenophobia and prejudice, banned Asian immigrants from owning land. They were abolished by both the US Supreme Court and federal law.
Given the current bill’s broad and vague language unmoored to any evidence beyond generalized fears, all it's doing is inviting costly legal challenges. And if challenged in court, this bill is unlikely to survive the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which prohibits discrimination based on national origin.
Opposition to this bill should not be mistaken for support for these brutal regimes. But the people who escape Putin’s Russia or Kim’s North Korea are not people we should punish. They are people we should embrace. Imagine if South Carolina leaders in the 1930s had told Albert Einstein, technically a citizen of Nazi Germany until 1940, that we held him responsible, on any level, for the actions of his government?
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As this bill moves its way through the South Carolina House and to Governor McMaster, both would be wise to remember the final words Ronald Reagan uttered as our president. “Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we're a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier.”
These immigrants we are scapegoating and punishing are the very people Reagan said we should uplift as the reason why we are a great country. President Reagan was right then, and he is right now.
Chris Richardson served as a US diplomat in Nigeria, Nicaragua, Pakistan, and Spain. He currently is General Counsel and COO of BDV Solutions, LLC in Greenville.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Opinion: SC foreign land ownership bill is 'bumper-sticker politics'
