President Donald Trump on Thursday visited the U.S. Park Police’s Anacostia Operations Facility to praise National Guard soldiers and federal agents deployed under his month-old crime crackdown in Washington, D.C. Standing before several hundred personnel, he declared the capital “a different place” and said the federal presence would stay “for a while” before being replicated in other cities. The administration says the operation has led to 630 arrests and the seizure of 86 illegal firearms since Aug. 7, including 53 arrests and 10 guns taken off the streets overnight. White House figures indicate that roughly 40 % of those detained are undocumented immigrants. Officials also point to the city’s first homicide-free week in months as evidence of early success. Trump assumed temporary federal control of the Metropolitan Police Department on Aug. 11 and has brought in about 1,900 National Guard troops from several Republican-led states, alongside agents from the FBI, ATF and other agencies. Military lawyers are being seconded to the U.S. Attorney’s Office to manage the heavier caseload, and the Pentagon has urged its 950,000 civilian employees to volunteer for stints with immigration agencies. City leaders and civil-rights groups say the strategy is heavy-handed, citing traffic checkpoints where officers ask drivers about immigration status and surveys showing 79 % of residents oppose the takeover. Mayor Muriel Bowser notes that violent crime had already been declining. Trump, however, told Congress he will seek additional funding to keep the operation running and reiterated his goal of making the capital “the best in the world.”