Dr. Phil McGraw, the longtime television personality and author, was on the ground with a camera crew Friday to interview Trump border czar Tom Homan and document the ICE raids in Los Angeles that sparked weekend-long protests throughout the city.
McGraw did not personally tag along with ICE officers for the raids. Instead, he remained at the Homeland Security Investigations field office in L.A. and interviewed Homan for his conservative TV channel, MeritTV. The conversations he had with Homan throughout ICE’s L.A. operation will air Monday and Tuesday night as part of the week’s “Dr. Phil Primetime” broadcasts.
According to MeritTV representatives, McGraw was in L.A. to “get a first-hand look at the targeted operations.” He was also given exclusive access to Homan and spoke to the border czar about ICE’s aggressive deportation efforts this year both the day before and day after the agency’s L.A. raids.
This is not the first time McGraw has gotten to see an ICE operation quasi-firsthand. In January, he became embedded with ICE officials stationed in Chicago. On Friday, however, he chose to sit-out the raids that turned Los Angeles, once again, into a cultural and political hotspot.
“In order to not escalate any situation, Dr. Phil McGraw did not join and was not embedded,” a MeritTV spokesperson said.
ICE’s recent L.A. operation is far from the first, headline-worthy immigration effort that the agency has conducted since President Trump took office again in late January. The administration made waves months ago when it deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants it claimed had ties to a notorious gang to an El Salvadoran prison.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, nicknamed “ICE Barbie,” has gone out of her way to promote the administration’s aggressive immigration policies and efforts as well. She has accompanied ICE raids throughout the year, posed for photos wearing the same gear as immigration officers and been at the center of certain filmed ICE operations. In March, she even visited the El Salvadoran prison where the Trump administration deported hundreds of purportedly illegal immigrants and stood for photos in front of its full jail cells.
McGraw’s presence at ICE’s recent L.A. raids is, in other words, part of an ongoing effort on the Trump administration’s part to publicize and increase the visibility of its immigration strategy.
ICE’s L.A. raids were met with fierce opposition from the city’s residents. They sparked protests, some of which turned violent and resulted in multiple injuries, that have continued throughout the weekend and into Monday. President Trump, in response, sent hundreds of National Guard troops to the city.
Trump’s decision has been fiercely criticized by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who released a letter Sunday denouncing the move as a “serious breach of state sovereignty” and requesting that the president recall the National Guard.
