What Happens to Citizenship and Passports If Texas Becomes Independent

A Texan who holds United States citizenship on the day Texas becomes independent would still hold it the day after, unless that Texan chooses to give it up. The Supreme Court settled the principle in 1967. In Afroyim v. Rusk it held that the Fourteenth Amendment protects "every citizen of this Nation against a congressional forcible destruction of his citizenship," and that a citizen has "a constitutional right to remain a citizen in a free country unless he voluntarily relinquishes that citizenship."

The Texas Nationalist Movement's position covers the other half of the question. Its FAQ states that Texans who are already legally living in Texas when it becomes independent will automatically gain Texas citizenship. No one would have to apply, and how anyone voted in the referendum would not matter. The movement holds that a Texan could keep both citizenships.

Why a vote costs no one United States citizenship

Federal law lists the acts that can end a person's citizenship, and every one of them must be done "with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality." Voting in a referendum is not on the list. In 1980, in Vance v. Terrazas, the Court added that the government must prove a person meant to give up citizenship, not merely that the person did one of the listed acts: "expatriation depends on the will of the citizen rather than on the will of Congress and its assessment of his conduct."

The State Department applies the same rule. Its Foreign Affairs Manual says U.S. citizens "who naturalize in a foreign country or take an oath of allegiance to a foreign country do not automatically lose their U.S. citizenship." The movement's longer answer draws the conclusion for Texans: voting for independence, becoming a citizen of an independent Texas, or even swearing an oath of allegiance to it would not by itself end anyone's United States citizenship.

Who would be a Texas citizen

Beyond the automatic grant to legal residents, the movement treats the rules as a question for the Texas Legislature after a vote, and expects them to look like the citizenship rules of other self-governing countries. A spouse from outside Texas would be able to live in Texas, with a path to citizenship through a period of residence.

Countries that separated peacefully have started from residence too. The 1922 constitution of the Irish Free State made citizens of people domiciled there who were born in Ireland, had an Irish-born parent or had lived there seven years, and it let anyone who was "a citizen of another State" decline. Scotland's government, before its 2014 referendum, proposed that British citizens habitually resident in Scotland would become Scottish citizens automatically and keep their British citizenship. The movement's FAQ cites the Scottish plan as a template.

The deeper point, in the movement's view, is who decides. When the Supreme Court struck down the executive order on birthright citizenship on June 30, 2026, TNM President Daniel Miller said in a statement that an independent Texas would hold "the power to control its own borders and decide who becomes a Texan."

Passports, travel and work

An independent Texas would issue its own passports, built to the international standards that let a passport work at any border. A Texan who keeps United States citizenship would enter the United States on a United States passport, as federal law requires of every citizen: it is unlawful for a citizen to "depart from or enter, or attempt to depart from or enter, the United States unless he bears a valid United States passport." Dual citizens would also keep the obligations of United States citizenship, including federal income tax on "worldwide income from all sources," as the Internal Revenue Service puts it.

For Texans who hold only Texas citizenship, the movement points to the arrangements Washington already runs with friendly neighbors. Mexican citizens cross the land border on Border Crossing Cards instead of passports, and the Visa Waiver Program lets citizens of 42 countries visit the United States for up to 90 days without a visa. The movement expects Texas to qualify for those programs, with the final terms set in the separation negotiations.

The closest model for open movement between two separate countries is in Europe. The United Kingdom and Ireland keep a Common Travel Area under which, in the British government's words, "British and Irish citizens can move freely and reside in either jurisdiction," with the right to work and study. It survived Britain's exit from the European Union.

What the negotiation settles

The movement lists the items a separation agreement would cover for individuals: a totalization agreement so no worker pays Social Security tax to both Texas and the United States on the same wages, tax treaties against double taxation, banking arrangements across the new border, and the rules for travel and residence. Children born after independence belong on that list. Federal law makes a citizen at birth of "a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof," and passes citizenship to a child born abroad to one citizen parent when that parent lived in the United States for at least five years, two of them after age 14. How that rule applies to Texans born after independence is a term for the treaty.

In May 2019, nearly a century after the Irish Free State was founded, the British and Irish governments signed a joint statement saying both were "committed to maintaining the CTA in all circumstances." They signed it while Britain was negotiating its way out of the European Union, which Ireland stayed in.