Law Enforcement and Military Coordination for Border Operations Part 1

Welcome to “HSDF THE PODCAST,” a collection of policy discussions on government technology and homeland security brought to you by the Homeland Security and Defense Forum

 Borders aren’t just lines on a map—they’re living systems shaped by authorities, partnerships, and the ability to outpace adversaries who adapt fast. We bring together decades of military and law enforcement leadership to unpack what actually determines success: the legal frameworks that govern National Guard and active-duty roles, the intelligence architecture that connects U.S. agencies with Mexican counterparts, and the upstream moves that expose tunnels, stash sites, and convoy routes before they reach the fence.

 Featuring:

• MG (Ret.) John F. King, U.S. Army
• Chief (Ret.) Manny Padilla, Former CBP Executive Assistant Commissioner
• General Laura Richardson, U.S. Army (Retired) (moderator)

 This discussion took place December 12, 2025 at 8th Annual Homeland Security & Defense Forum Border Security Symposium

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Transcript

From Southcom To Army North

National Emergency And New Authorities

Western Hemisphere As A Priority

PRC Influence And Critical Minerals

Military Support To CBP Expands

Authorities Define What’s Possible

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Okay, uh good afternoon, everyone. How's everyone doing? You got lunch? That's good. Uh well, we're honored to be here today. And all three of us have worked together before. And um, and so it's uh it's it's nice to be here together in a different capacity today. And so um I appreciate everything, first of all, uh appreciate everything that you all do um to serve our nation, whether whatever capacity that you are in, whether it's DHS or CBP or components of DHS, uh, our industry, you play a really big role in that. Academia plays a really big role in that too, with research and development, and so on and on and on. But um I want to thank also the HSDF personnel that do these forums on very relevant topics all of the time. And so um, with that, we have law enforcement and military uh coordination uh on border operations, and so that's the title of this panel. And then obviously we'll go into QA uh uh towards the end of the panel and looking forward to the questions. But in terms of just to set the strategic stage, um, and I just retired in January from United States Southern Command, and I was one of the six geographic combatant commands under Department of War. And the region that I had was uh South America, Central America, and the Caribbean, and working with our 31 countries, um uh working with their militaries, uh, their public security forces on contingency operations, planning, training, uh, all those kinds of things. And so everything that uh that is happening in the Caribbean right now um is what I said was needed, all that attention. And uh there it is there now. Prior to that, I was in Army North. I was Army North commander under U.S. Northcom, we were the Army Component Command uh and have the uh active duty military that uh provides support to CBP on the southwest border. And so, really myself, John King, and uh and Manny Padilla worked together. And uh John King was my contingency command post commander for Task Force 51. Uh and Manny was the JTF West uh director, and prior to that, uh long careers. So uh 38 years Army, John King, 41 years National Guard from Georgia Guard, uh, as well as 31 years uh in law enforcement. He started in the Atlanta Police Force and then was the chief of police in Doraville, Georgia, and then certainly uh Manny Padilla, who is a legend in CBP, uh Chief Border Patrol agent in uh Rio Gran Valley, Tucson, uh New Orleans, and then uh last assignment as JTF West. Uh and uh we worked together in San Antonio. So with that, we have just to set the strategic stage. We have uh under Trump 1, we had the national emergency on the Southwest border that was declared. Uh 2025, first day in office, uh, same thing, right? National emergency, southwest border. We've had executive orders come out under each one, Trump 1, Trump 2. Executive order and Trump 2 really focused on uh having the military and giving the military uh more authorities to support CBP uh in their operations. And so we've seen an increase, quite a bit of an increase in military that have gone to support CBP. When I was a commander of Army North, we had a brigade combat team uh that was under Army North and Northcom. And now you have a division headquarters with quite a bit more capability, uh as well as three brigades that are in support of CBP. And so, um, and then uh of course we have our national security strategy that just came out last week, right? And so homeland, as we would expect, is number one priority, and it has been, right? But the difference here is now the Western Hemisphere has been added as a priority. And the Western Hemisphere, which is the hemisphere with which uh I commanded in US Southern Command, right? There's a Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine for the Western Hemisphere. And what does that mean? And it means to keep non-hemispheric strategic adversaries from coming into the region, from gaining and controlling uh critical assets from bringing military into the region and from doing critical infrastructure builds quite a bit. And so when I uh got into Southcom, I will tell you that uh I was uh, as I learned about the region, studied up on the region, shocked at what uh you know, part of our strategic adversaries have been able to do over the previous like decade. 23 of 31 countries signed on to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. That's significant because that is all uh big billions of dollars worth of projects into critical infrastructures in the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Deep water ports, uh, space, 5G, safe city, smart city technologies. We know that surveillance technology, most PRC enabling space infrastructure in the Western Hemisphere than anywhere else in the globe. That should concern us. Uh, and from a military perspective, seeing China with their uh conventional, the largest buildup of military forces since World War II in conventional and nuclear forces. So, what I look at is the being able to flip the use of that from state-owned enterprises, which are controlled by the government that run these companies, and being able to use that for military application. Right? And so, you know, just back to the broader strategic framework, uh, not to mention the rare earths, the critical minerals, 60% of the world's lithium is in the Western Hemisphere. You've got lithium, you've got uh Chile, that's the number one producer of copper, which we need for technology, Brazil, number three in the world for nickel. So, as we talk about all these critical minerals, which are key to everything that you need, DHS, CBP, AMO, ICE, HSI, all the technology that we need, Defense Department, um, relies on our ability to have access to these critical minerals and rare earths. So it's not surprising to me while the national security has uh national security strategy has included all these things. So um as we think about you know everything that's happened um over the past, I don't know, 11 months, and we look at how the military has been uh has been uh used in support of CBP and DHS. And so, you know, as we talk about uh through the panel today, also I think authorities are really, really important. Um, those are all the things that allow us to do things or really restrict our ability to do certain things. And certainly between the Department of War and DHS, you know, those authorities that we have or don't have are critical to the mission set and critical to being successful or not. But, you know, I'll throw a question out there in terms of, you know, as we've seen the deployment of the military, talked about the increase of military support to CBP, but now we're also seeing deployments of National Guard to different cities within the United States. And we're seeing different reactions to that, right? Uh, from political leaders to state leaders to, you know, government officials and those sorts of things. And so, you know, is this the new norm for our military? Because, you know, our military has to be ready to fight our nation's wars, right? As we're dealing with our internal, uh, internal security and those sorts of things. And then also, let's not forget that the, you know, and has been mentioned before today, is the World Cup that's that's coming very, very quickly. And then, oh, by the way, on the heels of that, two years later, is the LA Olympics. And are we ready? Are we ready to tackle that? And how do we transform and we uh we keep technology at the forefront that we're able to iterate it in quick enough that we can stay ahead of our adversaries as they quickly adapt. But back to authorities and back to the military deploying to all these cities, and then the different authorities by which uh the military operates under. So I'll throw that one to uh Major General retired John King first, and we'll talk about all the different authorities out there.

Guard In Cities: New Normal

Title X vs State Control

SPEAKER_01 9:27

A great deal of you hear a lot of of news about the military being in our in our communities. And and I I will tell you as a career National Guard uh officer who is deployed overseas multiple times, um is the authorities is everything. And and most people do not I think don't understand a little bit about the authorities. Uh governors routinely call National Guard soldiers. Uh in Georgia, we've called them up every time there's a snowstorm. We don't do snowstorms very well in Georgia, as you can imagine. Uh and so we call tornadoes. Nobody even even blinks an eye. And governors have the greatest deal of authority to give to National Guard soldiers when they're under that authority of the governor. They can participate in law enforcement type activities. Now, as an advisor to our governor, a constable, you know, and as also a a retired police chief, I always have caught cautioned uh not only our governors to use the lose National Guard soldiers to relieve the the task, the mundane task of law enforcement officers. So when it comes time to go and arrest potentially U.S. citizens, is not somebody in a military uniform. Um in most governors have understand that and and they use that. But that ability that when the President and the Secretary of War calls out, activates National Guard under Title X, which is a completely different title, those authorities are non-existent. And so the use of National Guard soldiers then translates into securing Federal facilities, providing logistical support. Again, the same formula to re to relieve the tasks, the mundane tasks, to free up Federal agents so they can go and enforce. But you have to understand those authorities very carefully because that sets the stage on how we use National Guard soldiers. Now remember, uh National Guard soldiers have regular jobs every day. And so every time we call up National Guardsmen, in Georgia, when I was a commander of an infantry brigade deploying to Afghanistan, 9% of my soldiers were police officers, EMTs, and corrections officers. So there's a cost to our communities and the capabilities of our communities every time we mobilize our soldiers. And of course, the Department of Defense is incredibly the Department of War and National Guard soldiers incredibly capable, have incredible amount of equipment, incredible amount of capabilities, but it comes at a cost. We are expensive because you have to pay all those capabilities, the salaries, and those things that they're typically are not programmed. And so that puts that has to be part of that that uh discussion. But unfortunately, uh, you know, the Department of War and National Guard have become the easy button for any time there's a crisis. I mean, we called uh border, uh COVID, you name it, World Cup, we're gonna be mobilizing uh National Guards to assist in our communities. And of course, that unfortunately I think has become the the new normal, but it comes at a cost.

Cost And Community Impact

SPEAKER_02 13:03

So I would say the uh uh when we were in Army North, we had a situation on the southwest border. Um we had active duty, we had National Guard that was mobilized on active duty, mobilized on Title X orders, uh serving that. But then we also had the National Guard for the state of Texas working for the Department of Public Safety for Texas, and then all supporting, yeah. Um, so we're all there together. Uh military all wearing like the same uniform, but in some cases under different authorities, right? And that can get confusing. Um, but uh but Chipadilla, uh thoughts on the authorities and and those sorts of things and and this new normal, or do we just need to uh invest in building the capacity that uh that CBP needs to have? Because we've been at this for quite a while. This is what was supposed to be initially a temporary thing, right? Uh but now here we are almost at 2026, and we first started with this really at 2019 for the series that we're talking about.

Mixed Authorities On The Border

Converging Threats And Cartels

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Thank you, General. So I'll segue um into 2018-2019 when we deployed uh the military under Title X to deal with the caravans. That's uh when I started working closely with uh Army North, uh General Buchanan, and then General Richardson, and of course uh my compadreaki habla puro spagnol, um dealing a lot with Mexico, right? Um so is it the new norm? I think it's important for us to think in this construct here. If you look at the convergence of the threats that we're facing, um there is no more alien smuggling organizations, drug trafficking organizations, terrorists. It's a it's just a mix of cartels will move anything they need to in order to make money. And one thing that was very telling to me is during the last couple of years of uh of the previous administration when we were seeing those surges, the majority of the murders in Juarez were cartel members killing each other over territory to smuggle not drugs, but smuggle aliens. So when you see that convergence of the threat, I think it absolutely warrants a coming together of US capabilities to include the military, to include state and local, tribal, and in partnership with those countries that will work with us. Uh I think we heard a lot today uh about the the efforts that are being done on the border personnel technology as the foundation, intelligence. Um all that is great, and the results uh you can see very, very well. What I would propose is that we actually have to extend the border uh outward because on the avenues of approach, we cannot be in a situation as we go into the future that we do not know what's on the south side of that wall. So, for example, the tunneling threat, the subterranean threat. When we discover one here in the US and we backtrack it to where it started, there's been piles of dirt for the last three, four months that are happening on the south side that you talk about uh an indicator of something happening. We need to remove the anonymity of the cartels in that border area. We need to know exactly who they are, what they're doing, how they're doing it, in partnership with those countries, and stop those illicit flows prior to approaching the immediate border area.

Extending The Border Outward

SPEAKER_01 16:52

I may add you you you uh reminded me of uh our time you know coordinating with the uh northern, you know, uh with the border commanders conference and and learning from our uh with our friends from Sedena on their first encounter with fentanyl. It was one of their checkpoints. Young soldiers saw a bunch of uh a truck full of Sprite, bottles of Sprite, and one of the soldiers turned around and opened one of them and drank it. He was dead immediately. And that was the first indicator that we had to start paying attention to personal protection or how do we train our soldiers. This is not something innate that we train soldiers. We don't even train police officers in this kind of stuff. But that was the first indicator. And I think had we had that vision of looking into and having those relationships and those that that that axis, and so that's why coordination is the key word on this is the military law enforcement coordination is key because we have a responsibility not only to protect our our our deployed assets, our our soldiers, our agents, and of course our communities. But that was a shocker to me back in 17. Yes, absolutely.

Fentanyl Lessons And Protection

Following The Money And TOCs

Cross-Border Communication Gaps

SPEAKER_02 18:06

So what we uh uh in US Southcom, the last figure, in fact, my successor testified in March, um, and we have a graphic of all the transnational organized crime uh and the historical uh drug trafficking routes uh within the region. And so, but annually, and it continues to increase every year. We had uh we had um come up with the number of 358 billion. When I was still the commander, it was 310 billion, but it just continues to go up every year. That is 358 billion annual revenue business, is what we factored in the Western Hemisphere. And so when you even add up the military budgets of all the countries, it doesn't even come close to that. And so how do we get, how do we break this vicious cycle? Because it's it's not just drugs, it's also people, it's illegal mining, it's illegal fishing, uh, it's illegal logging, it's all the illegal stuff. Um, and it's very, very rampant in the Western hemisphere. And so, how do we break that cycle? How do we follow the money? Who's doing all the money laundering, right? How is it all happening? Because it's happening right here, very close to our to our homeland. And quite honestly, the reason I think why the national security strategy put the Western Hemisphere along with the homeland uh as a priority, right? Uh, as we talk about cross border coordination, can we do better at that? Right? I mean, me as a commander in the in the Western Hemisphere, we had there's a long history with all the countries fighting amongst each other, right, as uh as enemies and having to protect their border. But then as I would talk to them, I'm like, okay, we're 28 like minded. Democracies out of the 31 countries in the region. You need to quit squabbling amongst each other because right under our nose, you've got China China with Huawei, and 23 of the countries have signed up to the Belt and Road Initiative. You know, a lot of you have Huawei backbones. So the stealing of data, the sabotage that's that's happening right under your nose. You can't see troops massing on the border. You don't have alarms bells going off when they're hacking your data. We have in our own country examples of uh assault typhoon, vault typhoon, right, on our telecommunications networks here in the US, on our critical infrastructure here in the US, right? And what are we doing to protect that? But cross-border coordination. Um and so when we think about our own US border with Mexico, right? Our own US border with Canada, do we have the same communication? Can we talk to each other? Or do we have to talk to each other on WhatsApp, right? If we even have each other's numbers. And so trying to foster that, Colombia and Ecuador, border problems. That's where the borders are normally the seams with which cartels and the transnational organized crime happens. Um so how do we how we how do we better work with our partners?

SPEAKER_01 21:19

So ma'am, we I'm sorry, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

No, go ahead.

Clarifying Support To Mexico

SPEAKER_01 21:24

You know, I think when I was down at RGB and working with Manny, we we would deal with, for example, Webb County uh Sheriff's Department, Laredo. And they would have a shooting in Nuevo Laredo, and the suspects would go to the American side. And there was no effective way of communicating between Sedena and the Mexican, you know, uh Policía Estatal or the Policía Federal and the US component and the secure means, which to me was was crazy. And so we have to we we had some incredible challenges in coming out with a program of record of being able to establish secure communications capabilities with our partners on the other side. And it was our authorities and and and what DOD, you know, what the department of at that time DOD support to law enforcement versus support to Sedena. And so we need a little bit more work on being able to clarify how do we support, because the Mexican military established La Guardia Nacional, which are military policemen from Sedena who just changed uniforms, are still getting a salary from the Secretaria Nacional de Defensa, but then all of a sudden we were blocked from assisting them because they were now technically law enforcement. It to me, it's just the clarity, uh, and and we would hit our heads against against the brick wall because of authorities and and and U.S. uh you know obstacles.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Let me dig a little bit into the uh Western Hemisphere. So from a military and and actually law enforcement uh perspective, if you look at the Western Hemisphere, to me it's that's the avenue of approach.

unknown 23:13

Yes.

Western Hemisphere As Avenue Of Approach

Mexico Trade And Shared Interests

Designing A Crime-Free Trade Zone

Secure Comms And Common Picture

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Um now that you're seeing the efforts that uh this administration has taken to quell uh illegal immigration, illegal drugs, et cetera, and and and uh my colleagues here will assert to this that all those governments that saw the flows as mission impossible, guess what they're doing now? They're actually securing their own borders because nobody wants to get stuck with those flows in their respective countries. So what the US is doing right now as far as prioritizing the Western Hemisphere, it's actually making those better those countries better. There's it's a forcing mechanism for them to govern instead of just being a thoroughfare to the U.S. So that's one thing. The other thing that uh comes to mind too is that who's our number one trading partner with the US? It's Mexico. Mexico is the number one trading partner with the US. So for industry and actually for leaders, because every partnership requires two main things, right? You you need the leadership to say, to have the willingness to work together and to get to yes. That's the number one thing. And then secondly, here comes the systems parts where you have the systems, the ability to share information, the ability to share uh data. That's where industry comes in. So two main parts. Um when we look at that southwest border, and it's again Mexico being the number one trading partner, that area should be designated by both countries as a crime-free zone. No cartel activity at all, right? Because that's of interest to both countries. I think Mexico is very interested in being the number one trading partner. I think the US is interested in having Mexico as a number one uh number one trading partner. We have the technology, we have the capability, the law enforcement capability to designate it just like you would a uh crime-free zone and a school zone, right? And say, hey, we are monitoring this area together. We're leveraging the technology, the surveillance technology, we're sharing information, the the proverbial common operating picture, common intelligence picture, having those joint commands, because as General King said, Um, and I've been retired less than a year, but we were communicating what's happened very informal ways. In today's world, do we have the ability to establish secure communications with partners that we work uh work with? I believe that we do. So we need to take that leap and make that truly a security and prosperity model, because security and prosperity go hand in hand. You cannot have a prosperous trade zone if your security is all messed up. As we speak today, as we speak today, there is the uh the the trucking industry that moves goods from the US into Mexico, they have to stop at the border and pay so much money to the cartels. And that stays quiet. It stays quiet because, hey, there's there could be repercussions uh if you say something. As we speak today, there is refined fuel that is smuggled from the US into Mexico, cartel making money, fueling the violence, whatever things the uh cartels do, and it's uh almost in plain view. So if you really focused in establishing this a crime-free zone and have it as a model of security and prosperity, I think you have again the capability, the law enforcement capability and expertise, um, both in the military and in the uh in the law enforcement realms, and then you have with you all the technology to be able to implement secure systems to be able to establish the uh again the common operating picture, common intelligence picture. I know it's a bold step, but um if we were to do something like this, that would be long lasting. That's not something that one administration can come and take away because that is a binational uh priority to both.