"Secure this border, Mr. President," were the words Texas Gov. Rick Perry during his testimony earlier this month at a U.S. House Homeland Security Committee hearing in South Texas.

The focus of the hearings was to shed more light on the rapid rise in unaccompanied minors coming over the border from Central America.

However, Perry has used this platform to criticize President Barack Obama on his border policy, as well as to gain a brighter spotlight ahead of his 2016 Republican Party bid for president.

"With tens of thousands of undocumented immigrant children streaming into Texas, the border crisis gives Perry an animating issue placing him at the forefront of Republican politics," the Washington Post reported.

Perry is playing to a conservative Republican base of voters, hoping to show that he's the man to lead the country on immigration policy.

Perry took on Obama during the President's recent visit to Texas.

"The immigration crisis has given Perry the opportunity to stare down President Obama - they sat across a table from each other in Dallas earlier this month - and a second chance to make a positive impression with Republican voters," the Post said.

And NBCNews.com said, "Perry's hammering of the Obama administration's border policies has made him a go-to Republican voice as pressure mounts for the White House to stem the tide of new illegal entrants into the country. "

Perry has been building on that early attention, speaking candidly about his lack of faith in the Obama administration's handling of the border. He's gone so far as to set in motion plans to militarize the border between Texas and Mexico by calling up  1,000 National Guard troops, and is calling this tactic "Operation Strong Safety."

The military troops, however, will not go out on patrol when they arrive at the border. They will handle administrative duties, reports say, and allow border patrol agents to do the work of security along the U.S.- Mexico line. Another way that Perry is using the border crisis for his own agenda is that he is trying to force the president's hand.

Perry will remove the troops from the border if the government approves and additional 3,000 border patrol agents.