Imagine that you have an upcoming business trip to Texas. You might be required to carry your passport along with you when you pass through border control and immigration…
…and imagine if that scenario actually became a reality.
Texas to Secede From the United States as a Separate Nation?
Texas became a part of Mexico after gaining its independence from Spain in 1821. After formally declaring its independence with the Texas Declaration of Independence on Wednesday, March 2, 1836, Texas was an independent republic before joining the United States as state number 28 on Monday, December 29, 1845 until it voted to secede in from the Union on Friday, February 1, 1861. As many as 750,000 people in the Civil War — which was greater than two percent of the entire population of the United States at that time — died. Texas was formally readmitted to the Union on Wednesday, March 30, 1870 during the Reconstruction Era following the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865….
…and if members of the Republican Party in the state have their way, Texas would become an independent republic once again, as a resolution was adopted at the Texas State Republican Convention in urging the Legislature of Texas to propose a referendum before the people of Texas in November of 2023 “to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation.”
Kyle Biedermann and James White — both of whom are members of the House of Representatives of the state of Texas who represent District 73 and District 19 respectively; and are both members of the Republican Party — authored and introduced Bill HB 1359 to the Legislature of Texas last year, “Relating to proposing a referendum to the people of the State of Texas on the question of whether this state should leave the United States of America and establish an independent republic.” The bill had apparently stalled.
Final Boarding Call
Although it can possibly happen if all of the hurdles are cleared, Texas becoming a sovereign nation is technically not legal in accordance with the terms of the Constitution of the United States — no state has seceded from the Union since Texas did — but it is the latest of a series of geographic areas in the United States which have considered secession.
In addition to seven counties seeking to leave Oregon and become part of the state of Idaho, there apparently has been a race as to which region, district or territory will become the next state of the United States first — the District of Columbia becoming Washington Douglass Commonwealth; the proposed state of Cascadia, the proposed state of Jefferson; or the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, where 61 percent of its citizens voted in a referendum in support of the financially-strapped island to become a state in 2012…
…and those are only four of a number of possible candidates for statehood.
The United States has been divided on a number of issues in recent years; and while the possibility of its boundaries and borders being altered might have been shrugged off years ago as a stunt of sorts, there may be an increased chance of that happening — although the processes of secession or statehood is difficult enough that it is not probable for all intents and purposes.
Are you eventually going to need a passport to visit Texas? Photograph ©2017 by Brian Cohen.
