Dr. Phil joins ICE immigration raids
SUGGESTED COVERAGE: ICE crackdown: Migrant arrests
The agency said law enforcement officers arrested 956 people and lodged 554 detainers over the weekend, which means "there's probable cause to believe that the person is removable from the United States under federal immigration law."
LOS ANGELES - President Donald Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown continues across the U.S., with mass arrests made in a number of cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Newark, and Miami.
Over the weekend, TV host and personality Dr. Phil McGraw joined an operation with U.S. Immigration Enforcement (ICE) officers in Chicago.
Phil McGraw, known as "Dr. Phil," joined border czar Tom Homan and a team of agents on Sunday as they took various illegal immigrants into custody in Chicago. As part of his show on Merit TV, Dr. Phil filmed a variety of arrests and even interviewed a convicted sex offender and internet predator from Thailand as he was being taken into custody.
SUGGESTED: ICE raids reported across Southern California
McGraw, who spoke at a Trump campaign event in October, shared on X 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.
Homan told McGraw they were targeting 300 people in Chicago, according to the Chicago Tribune. ICE reportedly arrested nearly 1,000 people across the U.S. Sunday, but did not clarify how many people were arrested in Chicago.
On his show, Dr. Phil emphasized that agents were not going into schools to arrest illegal immigrant students.
SUGGESTED: LA school police responds to ICE raids, immigration enforcement
"This truly is a targeted ICE mission because they're not sweeping neighborhoods like people are trying to imply," Dr. Phil said. "I know that because I've been involved heading into this. They've identified 270 high-value targets, and what I mean by that is that these are known criminals and terrorists."
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Phil McGraw, known as Dr. Phil, leaves after testifying in a Texas House of Representatives Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence hearing about Robert Roberson on Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, at the state capitol in Austin. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson released a statement on social media Sunday night, maintaining Chicago’s commitment as a sanctuary city.
"There have been confirmed reports of ICE enforcement activity in Chicago today, Sunday, January 26. Per City code, Chicago police were not involved in this immigration enforcement activity. My team and I are in close communication with City officials including the CPD," Johnson said. "It is imperative that all Chicagoans know their constitutional rights and share the Know Your Rights guidance with their neighbors and community."
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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents knock on the door of a residence during a multi-agency targeted enforcement operation in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Photographer: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images
ICE agents began targeting major sanctuary cities immediately after Trump's inauguration. The following day, Trump lifted longtime guidelines that restricted ICE from operating at "sensitive locations" such as schools, churches or hospitals.
ICE’s daily arrests, which averaged 311 in the year ending Sept. 30, stayed fairly steady in the first days after Trump took office, then spiked dramatically Sunday to 956 and Monday to 1,179. If sustained, those numbers would mark the highest daily average since ICE began keeping records.
ICE raids expand in Los Angeles, across U.S.
A Pomona woman captured ICE agents on video detaining her neighbor, as immigration arrests are being reported across Southern California.
The decision has worried many migrants and advocates who fear children will be traumatized by seeing their parents arrested in the drop-off line at school or that migrants needing medical care won’t go to the hospital for fear of arrest.
The Source: Information for this story is from Dr. Phil's social media accounts, previous FOX 11 reports, and FOX News.