Dr. Phil joined ICE agents and Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan on raids across Chicago, leading to one bizarre incident in which the TV shrink quizzed an accused undocumented immigrant about alleged sex crimes.
The doctor, whose real name is Phil McGraw, said in a post on X on Sunday that ICE aimed to pick 270 “high-value targets”, indicating it was a targeted operation, and defended the approach. “They’re not sweeping neighborhoods like people are trying to imply,” he said.
This comes amid a report that Trump has demanded that ICE agents arrest between 1,200 and 1,500 suspects per day.
“These are known criminals and terrorists. We’re talking about murderers, child traffickers, child rapists. We’re talking about bad actors, both in the countries they’ve come from, and since they’ve been here in the United States,” Dr. Phil said in a post on X.
At one point, the celebrity doctor is afforded the opportunity to ask a suspect about his alleged crimes. He asks a man named Sam, a native of Thailand, “You’ve been charged with sex crimes against children?” Sam responds: “Not really.”
When the man adds that he has never been deported, Homan interrupted to tell agents: “Let’s take him in, process him, and lock him up.”
The Trump administration last week deputized law enforcement agents with several Justice Department agencies to conduct immigration enforcement to supplement ICE efforts.
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and U.S. Marshals Service were granted the authority, the Trump administration said last week.In addition to Dr. Phil, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove publicized his trip to watch DOJ agents support immigration enforcement.
“This morning, I had the privilege of observing brave men and women of the department deploying in lockstep with DHS to address a national emergency arising from four years of failed immigration policy,” Bove said in a statement, adding that the deputized agencies, the FBI, and federal prosecutors would all be working on the effort.
Senior Justice Department officials are not typically present to observe law enforcement operations in real-time, current and former department officials say.A Justice Department official said that the first arrest in Chicago that Bove observed involved an immigrant living illegally in the U.S. who had “killed a 19-year-old woman while driving under the influence.”
ICE said it partnered with the DOJ for “enhanced targeted operations” in Chicago on Sunday aimed at preserving public safety but did not provide further details.ICE also made arrests outside a Home Depot in Tucson, Arizona, and in neighborhoods with Dominican immigrants in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with the support of its investigative arm, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
The two Democratic U.S. senators from Illinois, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, issued a joint statement saying Trump’s mass deportation effort would go far beyond deporting criminals and sweep in veterans, essential workers and other non-criminals.
“We should focus on deporting those who pose a danger to our country,” they said. “And we should give the rest a chance to earn legal status.”ICE made 956 arrests nationwide on Sunday, the agency said on X, three times the daily average for arrests in fiscal year 2024.
