Texas house speaker directs committee to study annexing parts of New Mexico

[Jilly_in_VA]

The speaker of Texas’s house of representatives says he is entertaining the idea of expanding the state by annexing some New Mexico counties.

Dustin Burrows, who has been the chamber’s speaker since 2025, ordered a state legislative committee on 26 March to look into the legal and economic options to add “one or more contiguous counties” of New Mexico to the state of Texas.

The office of the New Mexico governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, and some of her fellow state Democratic politicians summarily dismissed the idea, with Lujan Grisham’s office saying it is “not a serious proposal”.

Burrows set off the controversy by issuing an order to establish a new committee to study whether counties in the south-eastern part of New Mexico could be annexed.

For years, south-eastern New Mexico counties have pointed to political differences between themselves and the state’s capital, Democratic-led Santa Fe.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/30/texas-study-annexing-new-mexico

I don't think this is legal.

[Torchlight]

1. If NM is ignoring this as is, it's already dead in the water.

As I understand it, if any land/territory/property from an existing state were to join another state, the consent of both state legislatures as well as federal Congress would be required. From my chair, if NM simply ignores this, it goes nowhere.

[LeftInTX]

15. Some GOP rep in NM government wants the land to go to Texas.

It's got a bunch of oil.

The proposal, sponsored by Republican Reps. Randall Pettigrew of Lovington and Jimmy Mason of Artesia, didn’t gain any traction.
It was panned by Democrats.

“Representative Pettigrew has always wasted time with partisan nonsense like this,” Lea County Democratic Party Vice Chair Clayburn Griffin told the Albuquerque Journal in an email. “I wish he’d work with his colleagues to address issues people care about, like making life more affordable for working families. Like most Republicans, he’s only looking for ways to divide us instead of doing the work he was elected to do. Real leaders bring people together.”


Pettigrew noted the proposal, House Joint Resolution 10, didn’t receive a committee hearing.

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/texas-house-speaker-eyes-annexing-part-of-oil-rich-new-mexico/article_be398f8f-e33b-4223-8456-d4382aa73ecb.html

https://archive.ph/yYzeM

[Torchlight]

17. All I could find was that

Two gop members of the NM House introduced a proposal earlier this year that would allow voters in certain counties to petition for a ballot measure on seceding from New Mexico, but never advanced beyond debate in subcommittee.

[LeftInTX]

18. Yeah, that's what I found too.

[yellowcanine]

2. This has as much chance as Eastern Oregon joining Idaho.

Which is to say, no chance.

[Mad_Machine76]

6. Or Indiana annexing part of Illinois

I'm glad at least that it's too difficult of a process for it to be easily successful.

[Ritabert]

3. Any New Mexican who went for that would be crazy.

Considering how bad Texas is it'd be stupid.

[jls4561]

4. Of course it's not legal. Neither was the invasion of Crimea. Nor was sending troops into Sudetenland.

Just because your propaganda machine says that an adjacent landmass resembles your landmass, that doesn’t mean you have the right to seize it.

[Kid Berwyn]

5. Dustin Burrows must be a NAZI's NAZI.

Little traitor made himself up to look just like Jefferson Davis.

[Ilsa]

7. Maybe New Mexico could annex that west wing of Tx.

They'd annex El Paso and alot of sparsely populated land with tumble weeds rolling across.

[Johonny]

8. Am I safe to assume he doesnt know New Mexico

Is already part of America...

[alittlelark]

9. Crazy talk from crazy people

[randr]

10. Illegal or Unconstitutional

Republicans are indifferent to both.

[PCIntern]

11. I'm gonna annex my neighbor's property...

For starters. If they don’t like it I’ll intern them in a camp

[Kid Berwyn]

16. Don't forget the Tip Line.

Rat out the vermin:

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tip line is 866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423). This toll-free number is available 24/7 for reporting suspicious criminal activity, such as human trafficking, smuggling, or fraud, and operates in the U.S. and Canada. Tips can also be submitted online at the ICE.GOV/TIPLINE.

Will save one lots of time and trouble -- at the cost of one's soul, of course.

[GenThePerservering]

12. Idaho can have Washington State's eastern red counties

that want to join it - all they do is suck up tax revenue.

[City Lights]

13. What happened to "Don't Tread On Me?"

They tread wherever they want. Republicans suck the life out of everything.

[UTUSN]

14. Oh, good grief. There are no bounds in KRASNOV world.