It presses forward with President Trump's broader vision for a muscular role for the U.S. military in targeting illegal immigration and crime. He has already pushed traditional boundaries by sending the National Guard into American cities, often over the objection of Democratic local leaders.

The memos, reported earlier by The Guardian, come after Trump signed an executive order in August that directed the Pentagon to create quick reaction forces that would be "available for rapid nationwide deployment." The executive order is cited as one of the authorities for the memo, about which the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The National Guard has always had troops that were on standby to deploy at a moment's notice, but they traditionally have been used to quickly react to natural disasters and did not receive special training.

The new, specialized quick reaction forces will be able to deploy a fourth of all their troops within eight hours and all of those assigned to the units within a day, according to the memo.

During a roundtable at the White House last week with homeland security officials, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked about a memo detailing similar plans. Hegseth said he would not comment on the "particulars" but went on to say that there were "multiple layers of National Guard response forces."

"We've got a lot of different ways that, constitutionally and legally, we can employ" Guard troops, and "we will do so when necessary," Hegseth said.

While Trump has sent the National Guard into cities including Los Angeles and D.C., his efforts to deploy troops in other places have faced swift legal challenges. The Trump administration is blocked from sending troops into the Chicago area until at least the latter half of November, following a U.S. Supreme Court order calling on the sides to file additional legal briefs. And a federal trial seeking to block a troop deployment in Portland, Oregon, got underway this week.

The memos, which were sent out to the states early this month, mandate that each state and territory have its quick reaction forces operational by Jan. 1, 2026. To help with that goal, units will be provided 100 sets of crowd control equipment as well as two full-time trainers by the National Guard Bureau.

The units also will be allowed to use an additional five days of training for soldiers to get through the "Interservice Nonlethal Individual Weapons Instructor Course."

According to one of the memos, the initial portion of the course includes topics like "crowd management techniques," "domestic civil disturbance training," and "proper use of baton and body shields." The intermediate portion focuses on the use of non-lethal weapons like Tasers and pepper spray.