March 31, 2021
By News Director Jared Atha
A group of Oklahoma House Republicans, led by Rep. Anthony Moore, R-Clinton, and House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, sent a letter to Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter on Tuesday expressing their support for his efforts to work with local and statewide law enforcement to track reported transactions by aliens or foreign entities who acquire title to real property in Oklahoma with an underlying criminal purpose.
Rep. Moore said he has been contacted multiple times by his constituents regarding the sudden boom of property sales for what appears to be medical marijuana grow operations.
The letter follows after House Bill 1497, a bill that prohibits property ownership by aliens from countries that ban United States citizens from owning property in that country, passed in the House 88-5. The bill, authored by Speaker McCall, was carried on the House floor by Rep. Kevin McDugle, R-Broken Arrow. Moore reminds that the Oklahoma constitution already states that one has to be a U.S. citizen to own land in the state, but aliens, mostly from China, have been bending the rules.
Moore went on to say if the proposed senate bill does pass and is carried into law, land ownership acquired by a “front man” could be ruled null and void, and the operations on the land could be shut down.
A total of 50 representatives signed the letter including Rep. Todd Russ, R-Cordell, and Rep. Gerrid Kendrix, R-Altus.
