Texas Wants to Study Annexing Part of New Mexico. Can It Actually Happen?

What Happened

On March 26, 2026, Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Republican from Lubbock, released his list of interim charges — the priorities he wants Texas House committees to study before the 2027 legislative session begins on January 12. Most items were standard Republican fare. One was not.

Burrows directed the newly created Select Committee on Governmental Oversight to study "the constitutional, statutory, fiscal, and economic implications of adding to Texas one or more contiguous counties of New Mexico," according to the formal interim charge document published by the Texas House of Representatives.

The committee is also instructed to provide a detailed analysis of the U.S., Texas, and New Mexico constitutions, relevant federal and state laws, and judicial precedent, and to identify the steps required at both the state and federal levels to carry out such an addition, according to KOAT, the Albuquerque television station that reviewed the directive and spoke with Burrows' office directly.

Burrows' office told KOAT that there is no deadline for the committee's final report. Hearings are expected, with more direction potentially coming this fall.

What Burrows Said

In a statement to KOAT, Burrows explained his rationale: "Southeast New Mexico deserves a real voice in its own future, not one dictated by Santa Fe. It's a conservative, energy-rich region with a fierce independent streak, and West Texas has shown what's possible when you respect oil and gas, protect property rights, and trust local communities. This conversation is ultimately about culture, opportunity, and the right to choose a path that reflects the shared values of the Permian and Delaware basins. I look forward to this discussion in the new House select committee."

The broader list of interim charges Burrows released covers property tax relief, data center regulation and water use, foreign adversary influence operations, and the impact of geopolitical uncertainty on Texas oil and gas — including the Iran war and Strait of Hormuz disruptions — according to the Texas Tribune, which reviewed the full document.

The New Mexico Background

The Burrows directive didn't emerge in a vacuum. In January 2026, New Mexico State Representatives Randall Pettigrew and Jimmy Mason — Republicans representing Lea County and Roosevelt County, respectively — introduced a joint resolution proposing a state constitutional amendment that would allow voters in three or more counties to secede from New Mexico. That bill never moved past introduction, according to the New Mexico Legislature's official tracking system.

When the Lea County bill was introduced in January, Burrows had already posted on social media expressing support, writing that "Texas would gladly welcome Lea county back to Texas, where it rightfully belongs," according to The Guardian's review of his post.

New Mexico Rep. Pettigrew, who represents Lovington and Hobbs in Lea County, told KOAT that any move of this kind would require support from local governments — and that he has not had those conversations. "At the end of the day, we're in New Mexico," Pettigrew said. "I was born in New Mexico, raised here, have a business here, and became a state rep because I love this state. I want to fix the issues within this state."

Pettigrew has been vocal about what he describes as a disconnect between the oil-rich southeastern counties and the Democratic-controlled state government in Santa Fe. Lea County and Roosevelt County produce billions in oil and gas revenue for New Mexico. Pettigrew told the Albuquerque Journal that his colleagues in the state capital "want all the money" while opposing local control over oil and gas development.

How New Mexico Responded

New Mexico's political leadership was swift and dismissive.

New Mexico House Speaker Javier Martínez, a Democrat, responded on Friday: "I suggest that Speaker Burrows get offline, touch some grass, and get his own House in order. I am certain Texans would much rather see their elected leaders come up with real solutions to the soaring healthcare, grocery, and energy prices brought on by the reckless actions of President Donald J. Trump and his Republican friends in Washington, D.C. We're good," according to KOAT.

Michael Coleman, communications director for Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, issued a statement: "We have every intention of keeping the great state of New Mexico fully intact. This is not a serious proposal, but Texas can study it all they want. While they're at it, they could also study how New Mexico has reduced methane emissions in the Permian Basin by half compared to their state. If Texas followed our lead, it would be a win-win for Texans and the planet."

The Constitutional Reality

The idea raises immediate legal questions. Currently, neither New Mexico nor Texas' constitutions contain a provision for the secession of counties from one state to another, according to reporting by the Las Cruces Sun-News.

Under the U.S. Constitution's Article IV, the creation of a new state from within an existing state or by the junction of two or more states requires the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned, as well as approval by Congress. There is no established mechanism for a subset of counties to simply transfer from one state to another without the consent of both state legislatures and an act of Congress.

The Houston Chronicle noted that there are few precedents for such a transfer. The closest recent example involved Texas and Oklahoma redrawing a section of their shared border in 2024 over a water rights dispute — but that involved a mutual boundary adjustment, not the absorption of territory from one state into another.

The Chronicle also pointed to the historical context: when the Republic of Texas declared independence in 1836, it claimed a large swath of what is now New Mexico, as well as parts of Oklahoma, Colorado, and Wyoming, per the Texas Historical Foundation. Mexico never recognized those claims. After the Mexican-American War, the Compromise of 1850 settled the question: Texas ceded its claims to the New Mexico territory in exchange for $10 million from the federal government, and the current Texas border was defined.

If Lea County and Roosevelt County were annexed by Texas, the state would gain approximately 6,849 square miles of territory, according to the Houston Chronicle's analysis.

The Political Calculation

The Houston Chronicle's analysis characterized the directive as less a genuine legislative push and more "a wink and nod to Texas secessionists." Burrows' ideological base includes a grassroots secessionist wing of the Texas Republican Party; by embracing their framing — "it was originally Texas" — while routing the idea through a committee study rather than actual legislation, he can signal solidarity without committing to an impossible outcome.

The Texas Tribune noted that the interim charges also reflect Burrows' broader priorities heading into the 2027 session — data centers, property taxes, anti-"Sharia law" legislation, and H-1B visa restrictions — and that the New Mexico annexation item is one of the more politically charged additions to an otherwise conventional list.

Texas House Democrats slammed the full list. Rep. Gene Wu of Houston, the Texas House Democratic Caucus chair, said in a statement quoted by the Texas Tribune: "Every Texas family paying more for health care, more for electricity and more for groceries should look at Republicans' interim plans for their state Legislature and ask what any of it does for them. Your electric grid, your water, your insurance bill, your kid's classroom — none of it made the GOP's priority list."

What Comes Next

The Select Committee on Governmental Oversight will begin hearings, with more direction from Burrows' office expected in the fall of 2026. The findings will be presented to the full Texas Legislature when it convenes on January 12, 2027.

Whether any legislation emerges from those hearings — and whether that legislation could survive the constitutional requirements of consent from New Mexico's legislature and a separate act of Congress — remains entirely unresolved. New Mexico's governor has already signaled that her state will not cooperate. The bill for New Mexico counties to secede, which would have been the first step in enabling any future transfer, was already shelved in the New Mexico Legislature in 2026.

The practical path from a Texas House committee study to an actual redrawn state boundary runs through the New Mexico legislature, the U.S. Congress, and the Constitution's Article IV. As of March 30, 2026, none of those obstacles have been addressed.