Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) said he hopes the troops President Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE recently announced he will deploy to the U.S.-Mexico border stay there for the long run.

“I hope they'll stay there until hell freezes over, until that wall is built. We need the wall,” Patrick told Fox News.

Trump announced on Wednesday that he would send 4,000 National Guard troops to the southern border until his proposed border wall is built.

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On Friday, Defense Secretary James Mattis James Norman MattisBiden courts veterans amid fallout from Trump military controversies Trump says he wanted to take out Syria's Assad but Mattis opposed it Gary Cohn: 'I haven't made up my mind' on vote for president in November MORE approved the plan.

Patrick told Fox News that he supports the troop deployment because they can do “behind the scenes” work and surveillance that will free up law enforcement and border patrol agents.

“Their very presence will send a strong message, as it has before,” he said.

Patrick also called out Democrats opposed to Trump’s plan, including California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), who has squared off against Trump over "sanctuary laws" that provide protections to immigrants in the state.

“The idea that any Democrat or any liberal does not want to secure our border — to me, they're not upholding their oath of protecting the Constitution and the laws of this country,” Patrick said.