Most of the 1,000 National Guard troops headed to the Texas-Mexico border will take up observational positions and detain people only if they interfere with their mission, Texas Adjutant General John Nichols said Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.
Nichols said the troops will help deter illicit traffic while United States Border Patrol agents deal with a record spike of unaccompanied minors entering the country, according to the AP.
The Texas National Guard troops are headed to border on the orders of Republican Governor Rick Perry, who has been a chief critic of the White House response to the crisis and is considering another run for president in 2016, the AP reported.
"That's about as far as I want to go because if the cartel folks understand what we can and can't do then they may take advantage of that," Nichols told the AP. Nichols said troops will deploy to the Rio Grande Valley in the next few weeks and that no end date for the operation has been set.
The deployment will cost Texas an estimated $12 million a month on top of an extra $1.3 million a week the state has recently been giving its Department of Public Safety to ramp up operations along the border, the AP reported.
More than 3,000 Border Patrol agents currently work in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, and Perry had repeatedly asked President Barack Obama to send the National Guard to the border amid the influx, according to the AP.
Perry's order has drawn backlash from Democrats and even some local sheriffs and police chiefs in counties along the Texas border, the AP reported. They call the deployment an ill-conceived militarization and have questioned assertions by Perry and other Republicans who say criminals are exploiting the surge while the Border Patrol is overwhelmed taking in children.
