During a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation on Sunday in Chicago, TV host Dr. Phil embedded with the officers — supporting President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts.
Phil McGraw, known as Dr. Phil on his TV show focused on mental health, followed ICE officers and other federal agents during the operation, USA Today reported.
He documented the experience on his social media page on X via videos.
Dr Phil is embedded with @RealTomHoman for ICE operation in Chicago.
For full live coverage of the operation, download the MeritTV app. pic.twitter.com/PKkZRZzqq5
— Dr. Phil (@DrPhil) January 26, 2025
LIVE NOW: Dr. Phil and @RealTomHoman are in an ICE Command Center in Chicago.
Dr. Phil: Are you going into schools and arresting children at schools?
Tom Homan: No.
Dr. Phil: Is anything like that happening?
Tom Homan: No sir. pic.twitter.com/ELvIDDM6SN
— Dr. Phil (@DrPhil) January 26, 2025
JUST IN: The first arrest in Chicago with @RealTomHoman was a convicted sex offender and internet predator from Thailand.
For full live coverage of the operation, download the MeritTV app. pic.twitter.com/KEcphUWDDJ
— Dr. Phil (@DrPhil) January 27, 2025
McGraw, who spoke at a Trump campaign event in October, said in one of his Sunday posts that ICE aimed to pick up 270 “high-value targets,” indicating it was a targeted operation, USA Today said.
“They’re not sweeping neighborhoods like people are trying to imply,” he said, according to USA Today.
A spokesperson for ICE said a range of federal agencies conducted “enhanced targeted operations” in Chicago on Sunday “to enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Trump’s crackdown during his first week in office was carried out by new border czar Tom Homan, who served as acting director of ICE from January 2017 until June 2018.
Homan told ABC News that the Trump administration is only “in the beginning stages” of carrying out its mass deportation plan, making public safety threats and national security threats a “priority,” but “as that aperture opens, there’ll be more arrests nationwide.”
In the past year, McGraw has interviewed Trump several times, as well as others affiliated with Trump, such as Homan and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. His show schedule includes an upcoming episode about the “border crisis” championing stricter immigration laws, according to Newsweek.
ICE made 538 arrests nationwide on Thursday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, according to USA Today — signaling an uptick from averages over previous years.
The agency’s daily average for arrests was 311 in fiscal year 2024 and 467 in fiscal year 2023.
