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"Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians." Exodus 12:35-36

I have a political theory that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. The winds of secession blowing across the desertlands of west Texas and southeast New Mexico like a mighty haboob are a great example.

Southeast New Mexicans have a long and legitimate list of grievances with their taskmasters and oppressors in Santa Fe. The latest attack is the Immigrant Rights Act, specifically intended to close immigrant detention centers in Otero County and everywhere else.

That follows state lawmakers choking off Holtec in Eddy County, the governor's electric vehicle mandates that circumvented lawmakers, raising royalty rates on oil production purely out of spite, draconian COVID lockdowns and closures that prompted Hobbs High School to hold its senior prom in Texas, recreational cannabis sales that counties and cities couldn't stop, gun control bills sheriffs threatened not to enforce, state funding for abortion clinics, banning coyote hunts and trapping on public lands, and gerrymandering southeast New Mexico into three congressional districts to dilute their political influence in Washington.

That nakedly partisan move during a special session in December 2021 鈥� which ignored three congressional maps proposed by a newly created Citizen Redistricting Committee, carved Chaves County into three congressional districts, and upended decades of north-south oriented congressional districts 鈥� really poisoned the well of unity in Santa Fe.

Who wouldn't feel disenfranchised and disenchanted? Those are just the transgressions of our taskmasters and oppressors that leap to mind.

As I learned during nearly six years working at the Roswell Daily Record and the Hobbs News-Sun before coming to sa国际传媒官网网页入口 in 2020, the divisions between Santa Fe and the oil patch run much, much deeper than oil production.

As much as the elites dismiss it as nonsense, southeast New Mexicans truly feel that state lawmakers and the progressive institutions that support them such as Indivisible and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico are attacking their culture and their very ways of life. And the legislative record of the past decade underpins it.

So yes, there's going to be an opposite and equal political reaction 鈥� secession, which I'll henceforth euphemistically refer to as annexation.

Former state Sen. Cliff Pirtle on Feb. 1, 2021, became the first lawmaker in state history to introduce a secession 鈥� excuse me, annexation 鈥� measure. They laughed pretty hard then in Santa Fe.

鈥淚f you like Texas better, just pack up your bags and move 鈥� it鈥檚 not that far,鈥� Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart said five years ago in a derisive and dismissive tone emblematic of other elitist sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Democrats.

Pirtle's proposed constitutional amendment, which would have allowed counties to petition the Legislature to secede and either join a neighboring state or create a new state, of course didn't go anywhere in the 2021 regular session, but Senate Joint Resolution 15 laid the cornerstone of the secession 鈥� excuse me, again 鈥� annexation movement in New Mexico.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just a response to the lack of respect toward southeast New Mexico,鈥� Pirtle told the Journal in 2021. 鈥淚t seems like more and more it鈥檚 the ideals of sa国际传媒官网网页入口 that become law.鈥�

Since 2021, state lawmakers have quashed oil patch independence measures in 2023, 2024 and again this year, never allowing a robust debate on the floor or even in a committee of jurisdiction.

But they're not laughing so much these days. With Texas contemplating the annexation of southeast New Mexico, the prospect of independence from Santa Fe hasn't been so strong, or legitimately merited, since statehood in 1912.

State Reps. Randall Pettigrew, R-Lovington, and Jimmy Mason, R-Artesia, introduced a resolution during the recent 30-day session laying out a process for counties to place independence on ballots. House Joint Resolution 10 would have forced a public referendum if at least 15% of the voters in three or more contiguous counties signed a petition.

"And if we have a special election and two-thirds of the population in those counties agree and the county commissioners agree to that, and we (get) a presidential sign-off on it, we can get the hell out of New Mexico and quit being their problem," Pettigrew explained to the Journal.

I think such a referendum would receive 70-75% support in Chaves, Eddy and Lea counties, and even a majority in Bernalillo County. The liberals of sa国际传媒官网网页入口 don't want anything more to do with Trump Country than Trump Country wants to be part of New Mexico.

Reactions from Democrats were typical.

"Representative Pettigrew has always wasted time with partisan nonsense like this," said Lea County Democratic Party Vice Chairman Clayburn Griffin. "I wish he'd work with his colleagues to address issues people care about, like making life more affordable for working families."

Reactions from Republicans stood in contrast.

"I think by putting the resolution forward, he highlights an issue that needs to be addressed," said former Roswell mayor Dennis Kintigh. "Everything, I would argue, is almost diametrically opposed between the two cultures and I think (the disconnect) makes a mockery of our state pledge (that mentions) 'unified cultures.' There's no unity. There's no respect for southeastern New Mexico."

Democratic leaders wouldn't give House Joint Resolution 10 a hearing this year, but that hasn't stopped the spirit of annexation from sprouting like spring wildflowers.

In a remarkably positive and unexpected development late last month, Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows directed Texas lawmakers to explore the possibility of annexing southeast New Mexico. Burrows is a Republican from Lubbock, where many Lea County residents go to shop and for medical appointments, so he's in tune with the deep disenchantment in Lea County, which locals call Little Texas.

Now, Texas lawmakers are beginning the process of studying the 鈥渃onstitutional, statutory, fiscal, and economic implications of adding to Texas one or more contiguous counties of New Mexico鈥� and recommending 鈥渄rafts of any requisite legislation or resolutions to initiate the process.鈥�

Show me the bill!

So instead of Stewart's idea of 205,000 New Mexicans moving to Texas, we may be able to move the Texas line over to Otero County to include 205,000 new Texas. It would be a win-win for both states. New Mexico could jettison Trump Country and denounce its portion of the Permian Basin, while Texas would gain 205,000 residents and our portion of the world's richest oil reserves.

Yes, New Mexico would have to take dramatic fiscal steps losing more than a third of its general fund revenues derived from oil and gas tax revenues, but the folks of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, antifa and Hamas sympathizers don't stay up at night worrying about tax increases.

The governor, who doesn't want to lose the Permian Basin to Texas like her colleague in Illinois is losing the Bears to Indiana, is focused on the environmental climate rather than the political one.

鈥淭exas is welcome to study this ridiculous proposal all they want," said a spokesperson for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. "While they鈥檙e at it, they should 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.鈥�

Yeah Texas, that's what all of New Mexico is talking about: It's the methane, stupid.

If New Mexico de-annexed the Permian Basin, and the 745 million barrels of oil New Mexico produced last fiscal year, we could lower New Mexico's methane emissions to levels not seen since before the industrial revolution. Yes, New Mexico would also lose about $1.7 billion in annual severance taxes, but think about the methane reductions.

New Mexico鈥檚 hands would be practically clean of blood money from fossil fuels and community members could wash their clothes in the Rio Grande in environmentally sustainable and culturally responsible manners. Now that's the "just energy transition" progressives yearn for. We could go from the nation's second-largest oil producer to No. 50 in the blink of an eye, just by shifting state lines.

New Mexico House Speaker Javier Mart铆nez says he's ready for a fight.

鈥淟et me put this into terms Speaker Burrows might be able to understand: Come and try to take it,鈥� said the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Democrat, who had a heavy hand in watering the seeds of secession 鈥� oops, I did it again, annexation 鈥� when he shepherded the Cannabis Regulation Act through the Legislature during a special session in 2021. His bill didn't allow counties to opt out, as Colorado's recreational cannabis legalization did, and southeast New Mexico counties most certainly would have.

鈥淚 suggest that he get offline, touch some grass, and get his own House in order," Mart铆nez added in a statement probably written by a staffer who forgot that his recreational grass act is at the heart of cultural divisions with Santa Fe.

"I am certain Texans would much rather see their elected leaders come up with real solutions to the soaring health care, grocery, and energy prices brought on by the reckless actions of President Donald J. Trump and his Republican friends in Washington, D.C.," blah, blah, blah, Mart铆nez continued.

The New Mexico House speaker apparently doesn鈥檛 know he's one of the principal taskmasters southeast New Mexicans want to escape.

鈥淵ou are the man!鈥� the prophet Nathan rebuked King David regarding Bathsheba and her husband, Uriah the Hittite.

Thankfully, we have a friend on the other side of the Texas state line.

鈥淭exas would gladly welcome Lea County back to Texas, where it rightfully belongs,鈥� Burrows said. Indeed, the Republic of Texas had claims on present day New Mexico all the way west to the Rio Grande. Roswell would have NBA and NFL teams by now if it had remained in Texas.

The pharaoh of Egypt was also reluctant to let the Israelites go. It took 10 plagues to finally change the mind of Ramesses II.

The time has come to unleash 10 plagues on the house of the New Mexico speaker to persuade him, because the U.S. Constitution requires the approval of Congress and ratification of the affected states to shift counties around.

First, rather than turn the Rio Grande to blood, southeast New Mexicans should paint the town red and observe Annexation Day every Feb. 1 at the Roundhouse in honor of Pirtle's first annexation measure.

Rather than frogs, gnats and flies, we should celebrate the day with parades in Roswell, Hobbs, Artesia, Eunice and Carlsbad made up of high school bands, 4-H clubs, dance teams and color guards. Let there be fireworks, barbecues, gun shows, Bible quizzes, hog roasts and other abominations to the Egyptians.

Next, rather than wishing a pestilence on their livestock and boils among them, we should declare there are only two genders of lesser prairie chickens and deliver the males to lek to the furries on the Roundhouse lawn.

Then, we'll give them a hailstorm of pecans, and darken the skies of Santa Fe for three nights with no oil production.

Finally, instead of the death of their firstborn, we'll pray for their unborn. That should convince Pharaoh Mart铆nez to let our people go.

The enduring lesson I learned from my six years in Roswell and Hobbs was that the people of southeast New Mexico are tired of being ripped off and disrespected by Santa Fe.

We'd rather buy a new truck in Lubbock than sa国际传媒官网网页入口. We don't recreate here. We don't want to shop here and fund Mayor Tim Keller's political campaigns with gross receipts taxes. We don't want to buy a home or invest here. We don't follow the Lobos, or Isotopes or New Mexico United because we don't feel welcome here.

The time has come for annexation to move from a parlor game to a political reality. Under President Trump's bold leadership, anything is possible. The dream of independence from Santa Fe has never been as widely discussed or more plausible.

Fortunately for us, the Texas House speaker has heard our cries of misery and made removing our yoke of woke one of his legislative priorities for 2027.

Mr. Speaker in New Mexico, you don't like us and we don't like you. You couldn't get elected mosquito abatement director in Roswell. Our differences are profound and irreconcilable.

Put it to a vote in a committee hearing, at the least. What are you afraid of, tough guy? Everything is going swimmingly under your leadership, is it not?

Then, let my people go.

Jeff Tucker is a former Opinion editor of the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 and a member of the Journal Editorial Board. He may be emailed at jtucker@abqjournal.com.