Dr. Phil Participated in the Chicago ICE Raids. Why?

Dr. Phil is continuing to show his support for President Donald Trump’s hardline stance on immigration, joining Trump’s new “border czar” Tom Homan for the administration’s first immigration raid in Chicago.

In a video posted to X on Jan. 26, the former daytime talk show host — whose full name is Phil McGraw — is seen standing beside Homan and other immigration enforcement officers as he questions a detained immigrant who reportedly lacks permanent legal status.

In the clip, McGraw, 74, asks the detained individual about his background and immigration status. The man says he recognizes McGraw from television.

“You’ve been charged with sex with children?” the TV personality eventually asks.

“Not really,” the man responds.

“And you’ve never been deported?” asks McGraw, to which he responds, “Nope.”

Since Trump took office on Jan. 20, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reported more than 5,000 arrests, The New York Times reports. The administration says that they are focused on first arresting migrants with criminal backgrounds.

McGraw’s recent participation in a Chicago ICE raid comes after he spread anti-immigration rhetoric and aligned himself with Trump’s campaign.

In January 2023, per NBC News, McGraw gave one of his earliest indications about his perspective on the issue, stating on his talk show that he believed American immigration laws were not being properly enforced and that “we can’t get our act together by doing this the right way.”

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But he became a much more vocal supporter of strict immigration enforcement following the end of the Dr. Phil show on CBS in May 2023 and as his new show, Dr. Phil Primetime, began to air on his own network, Merit Street Media, in February 2024.

On Feb. 2, 2024, McGraw posted a photo posing with American border agents to his Facebook page, captioning the image, “Spent time at the border today with the men and women protecting our country. Searching for truth and answers… more on that to come.”

Over the last year, he’s made more direct anti-immigration comments, suggesting on Fox News that Chinese immigrants were “spying” on American agricultural practices and telling his followers on X that the “crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border was “even worse than I had imagined.”

McGraw hosted Trump on his talk show in August, where he asked the then-presidential candidate how he would “grade” Vice President Kamala Harris’ work after she was tasked by President Joe Biden’s administration to investigate the root cause of migration.

He delivered a speech at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York City on Oct. 27, in the final days before the presidential election.

On Wednesday, Jan. 29, Trump took action to fulfill his campaign promise of increasing deportations, signing into law the Laken Riley Act, which directs federal immigration authorities to detain and deport immigrants without legal status who are charged with a crime, per the Associated Press and NPR.

At the ceremonial bill signing, Trump also announced his intentions to open a detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — a prison known for its mistreatment of people who were accused of terrorism after the 9/11 attacks — to hold “dangerous criminals” and people who are “hard to deport,” according to the AP.

“We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal aliens threatening the American people,” he said.