Conservative TV personality Dr. Phil McGraw has thrown himself into the heart of Donald Trump’s immigration wars—by being embedded with ICE.
The 74-year-old reportedly accompanied agents in Los Angeles on Friday, giving him a firsthand look at the immigration crackdown that spurred protests and riots there.
CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter reported that the former daytime talk show host plans to incorporate L.A. raid footage into a special report on his show Dr. Phil Primetime, which airs on his right-wing network, Merit TV.
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Merit TV has not promoted the special, but a network spokesperson confirmed that a report from Los Angeles is in the works, adding that McGraw wanted “to get a first-hand look at the targeted operations.”
It is not even the first time that the former daytime TV star has inserted himself into ICE raids during MAGA 2.0.
His livestream from an immigration raid in Chicago during President Donald Trump’s first week in office included an awkward moment when one of the arrestees recognized him.
“You’re Dr. Phil?!” a Thai national allegedly convicted of sex crimes said to him. “You look like Dr. Phil.”
McGraw did not visibly react to the man’s remarks, which were made during a nighttime raid carried out in sub-freezing temperatures alongside Trump border czar Tom Homan. Critics questioned whether the livestream, which featured McGraw questioning detainees who insisted on not speaking without a lawyer, was ethical.
Back then, McGraw insisted to his viewers that Homan and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem were not doing mass sweeps of neighborhoods to arrest families. Instead, he said, they were targeting migrants convicted of crimes.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has since pushed immigration authorities to arrest as many as 3,000 migrants a day. Pressure to ramp up arrests has inevitably forced ICE agents to resort to arresting non-criminal migrants showing up to court for immigration hearings and even at naturalization interviews—the final step in becoming a U.S. citizen.
Other clips have emerged from workplace raids, which have prompted migrants to flee in droves from construction sites, restaurants, and other job sites. Similar raids in Los Angeles led to protests over the weekend.
McGraw was alongside ICE agents to witness the raids, but he has not yet spoken publicly about what he saw. Rioting, which included the burning of Waymo self-driving vehicles, prompted Trump to authorize the deployment of the National Guard without a request from California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.
Trump has dramatically posted about the situation in Los Angeles.
“A once great American City, Los Angeles, has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals,” he wrote on Sunday, promising federal action to “liberate” the country’s second-largest city.
Trump added, “Order will be restored, the Illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free.”
McGraw has become a friendly figure in MAGA after he cozied up to the president in two softball interviews during the 2024 campaign. In one of those interviews, from June, McGraw fawned over the then-candidate.
“You’ve got a thick skin. You’re not one of those people who is afflicted with the need to be loved by strangers,” McGraw told Trump. “You’re a billionaire, you’ve got a great family, you’re a very dedicated father, and people might not see that because you keep that kind of private.”
The TV shrink, who has not renewed his license to practice psychology since 2006, shared a clip on X of an interview he had with Homan on Sunday night. Merit Street Media did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment and details about when McGraw’s special report will air.
McGraw asked the border czar about his Los Angeles operation, “What was the objective? What were you executing during that operation? What triggered it? What were you executing?”
Homan responded, “We’re doing several different things. We were out there looking for at-large criminals. We also were serving a series of search warrants. We served three search warrants at four different locations, and it’s about, it’s part of a bigger laundering, money laundering investigation, and list of proceeds being sent to Mexico and Colombia to support the drug cartels.”
Homan also alleged that some of those recently targeted in Los Angeles were being singled out because they allegedly failed to pay $17 million in tariffs. He said 41 migrants were arrested in total in Los Angeles’ garment district.
