Based on Fort Bliss, Texas, Joint Task Force North (JTF-N) is a joint service command comprised of active-duty and reserve component soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, coast guardsmen, Department of Defense (DoD) civilian employees, and contracted support personnel. JTF-N is the DoD organization tasked to support our nation’s federal law enforcement agencies in the identification and interdiction of suspected criminal activities conducted within and along the approaches to the continental United States.

JTF-N, an element of U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), operates within the entire USNORTHCOM area of responsibility - encompassing the North American continent, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands, in air, land and sea approaches.

USNORTHCOM, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was established Oct. 1, 2002, to provide command and control of DoD homeland defense efforts and to coordinate defense support to civil authorities. USNORTHCOM anticipates and conducts homeland defense and civil support operations to defend, protect and secure the United States and its interests. USNORTHCOM is also responsible for theater security cooperation with Canada and Mexico. 

The JTF-N staff of Department of Defense professionals is committed to accomplishing the command's mission; their dedication to the homeland security support role is best summed up in JTF-N's motto: "Protecting the Homeland."

In Fiscal Year 2024, Joint Task Force North supports mission partners’ efforts in the U.S. Northern Command area of responsibility in order to protect the homeland.

JTF-N integrates responsive, expert military law support to law enforcement agency counter network efforts while increasing DoD readiness to promote homeland defense.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has a long history of supporting efforts to secure U.S. borders. Since the early 1990s, DoD has supported civilian law enforcement agencies’ border security activities. The scope and magnitude of the support provided today is similar to the support provided during the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations.

For fiscal year 2024, up to 2500 service members, primarily sourced from the National Guard, are authorized to support the CBP’s border security mission along the southwest border. The number of forces fluctuates as units rotate in and out of the operation. The DoD’s mission-enhancing support enables CBP to address security challenges and conduct their law enforcement mission more efficiently along the Southwest border (SWB)