(CNSNews) – Rep. Ted Poe (R.-Texas), who served for 30 years as a Texas prosecutor and judge before being elected to Congress, introduced legislation last week designed to force President Barack Obama to deploy a minimum of 10,000 National Guard troops at the U.S. Mexico border for the specific purpose of patrolling the border and intercepting aliens and smugglers attempting to cross illegally into the United States.

The legislation would allow the president to deploy more than 10,000 National Guardsmen, but not fewer.

“The president could put more than that, but he must put 10,000,” Poe told CNSNews.com. “The uniqueness of this is they would be paid by the federal government, because everybody says it is the responsibility of the federal government to protect the border. So the federal government will use the resources it already has to pay for those 10,000 National Guard troops, but they will be supervised by the governors of the four states on the border.”