What happens to people who live in Texas but moved here from elsewhere?

They become Texans, the same as everyone else. Citizenship in an independent Texas would follow from living here lawfully, not from where you were born or how long your family has been in the state. A transplant from California, Ohio, or anywhere else who is legally living in Texas at independence is a citizen of the new nation.

Citizenship would follow residence, not birthplace

The movement's position on this is already on the record, and it is simple: Texans who are legally living within the state when it becomes independent automatically gain Texas citizenship. That rule does not ask where you came from. A Texan is a Texan whether their roots run six generations deep or six years. The state has always been built by people who chose it, and independence keeps faith with that. If you have made your life in Texas and you are here lawfully, you are in.

This is how new nations have always handled it

There is nothing novel here. When a new country comes into being, the standard, well-precedented approach is to grant citizenship to the people lawfully resident in its territory on the day it becomes independent. When Scotland prepared its 2014 independence vote, its plan called for automatic citizenship for everyone living in Scotland at the time, regardless of where in Britain or the world they had come from. A people define their new nation by who lives in it and helps build it, not by an accident of birthplace. Texas would do the same.

Your US citizenship is a separate question, and it is secure

Moving to Texas from another state does not put your existing US citizenship at risk, and neither does Texas independence. Under settled US law, an American does not lose citizenship without a clear, voluntary intent to give it up, which is why so many Americans hold dual citizenship today. Becoming a citizen of an independent Texas would not, by itself, cost a transplant their US citizenship. We cover that in depth in the answer on keeping your US citizenship and benefits. The short version: gaining Texas does not mean losing America.

No loyalty test, no waiting line for people already here

There is no scenario in which Texans who moved here from elsewhere are treated as second-class or made to prove themselves. The whole premise of independence is self-government by the people who live in Texas, and that includes the millions who chose Texas over somewhere else. People who relocated here will hold citizenship on the same terms as anyone born in the state, with the same rights, the same vote, and the same standing. Where exact paperwork and timelines are concerned, those details fall to the future Texas Legislature, the same as every other citizenship rule.

The bottom line

If you live in Texas lawfully, Texas is your home and you become a citizen of it, no matter where you started out. Transplants are Texans too, and independence treats them as exactly that.