President Donald Trump on Monday ordered the Pentagon to create National Guard units in Washington, D.C., and across the country that would be designated to tamp down civil protests and ensure public safety — a job that historically and legally has belonged to civilian law enforcement.

Critics called Trump’s desire to build a kind of rapid “reaction force” for civil unrest alarming, insisting his order pushes legal boundaries for the National Guard, an auxiliary force whose mission is to help fight foreign enemies abroad or aid Americans in times of extraordinary crisis like hurricanes and floods.

In an executive order signed Monday, Trump called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to designate Army and Air National Guard members in each state who could rapidly deploy to help federal, state and local law enforcement “in quelling civil disturbances and ensuring the public safety and order whenever the circumstances necessitate, as appropriate under the law.”

The order also called on Hegseth to begin immediately training and equipping a “specialized unit” within the D.C. National Guard “that is dedicated to ensuring public safety and order in the Nation’s Capitol.” The order says members of the unit would be “deputized” to enforce federal law.