Obama Pressed To Send Guard To Border

Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, says he wants President Barack Obama to send more National Guard troops to the Mexican border.

Burgess sent the president a letter demanding he accept Texas Gov. Rick Perry's request for 1,000 federally funded National Guard troops to bolster border security, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Burgess, a member of the Joint Economic Committee, told Obama the forces should be "kept in place until the violence along the border can be safely managed."

"There is no greater role for the federal government than to protect the citizens of the United States from threats abroad," he wrote.

Obama has promised additional National Guard troops along the whole Mexican border, but border-state governors call his commitment inadequate.

The administration says the governors can order their own state National Guard units to the border but the governors want the federal government to pay for the deployments.