[NCLaw441]

Ben, perhaps Perry can take “executive action” as governor (a la Obama) and grant the National Guard some additional powers to take care of the issue.

[Ben Ficklin]

You have to read the article between the lines and know about Texas's Operation Border Star, which was a plan that was set up several years ago by Perry as a contingency plan if cartel violence overflowed the border into Texas. Back in those days there was a big war going on between the cartels but has since subsided.

Most of Operation Border Star was/is being paid for with Justice Dept grants but Texas spends about a million a year on it.

It involves local border law enforcement(County Sheriff/Muny PD), Texas Rangers, state police(DPS), and up to 1000 guardsmen if the situation warrants.

Since Border Star was set up there has never been an cartel incursion incident that required intervention but they hold training exercises on certain intervals.

If you read between the lines of the article and notice where they might deploy these guardsmen you get a sense that Perry might be calling up these 1000 guardsmen as part of an Operation Border Star training exercise.

But for the optics of the situation, it helps Perry to frame the call-up in a different way.