By Sarah N. Lynch and Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The TV host known as “Dr. Phil” embedded with U.S. immigration enforcement officers during an operation in Chicago on Sunday, defending President Donald Trump’s deportation effort as the crackdown neared the end of its first week.
Phil McGraw, known as “Dr. Phil” for the eponymous American television series focused on mental health, followed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and other federal agents during the action, according to his X account and two sources familiar with the matter.
McGraw, who spoke at a Trump campaign event in October, said in a post on X on Sunday 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.
Trump, a Republican, took steps to launch a wide-ranging immigration crackdown after taking office on Jan. 20, sending U.S. troops to the border and empowering immigration agents to pick up more non-criminals. The Trump administration last week deputized law enforcement agents with several Justice Department agencies to conduct immigration enforcement to supplement ICE efforts.
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and U.S. Marshals Service were granted the authority, the Trump administration said last week.
In addition to Dr. Phil, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove publicized his trip to watch DOJ agents support immigration enforcement.
“This morning, I had the privilege of observing brave men and women of the department deploying in lockstep with DHS to address a national emergency arising from four years of failed immigration policy,” Bove said in a statement, adding that the deputized agencies, the FBI, and federal prosecutors would all be working on the effort.
Senior Justice Department officials are not typically present to observe law enforcement operations in real-time, current and former department officials say.
A Justice Department official said that the first arrest in Chicago that Bove observed involved an immigrant living illegally in the U.S. who had “killed a 19-year-old woman while driving under the influence.”
ICE said it partnered with the DOJ for “enhanced targeted operations” in Chicago on Sunday aimed at preserving public safety but did not provide further details.
ICE also made arrests outside a Home Depot in Tucson, Arizona, and in neighborhoods with Dominican immigrants in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with the support of its investigative arm, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
The two Democratic U.S. senators from Illinois, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, issued a joint statement saying Trump’s mass deportation effort would go far beyond deporting criminals and sweep in veterans, essential workers and other non-criminals.
“We should focus on deporting those who pose a danger to our country,” they said. “And we should give the rest a chance to earn legal status.”
ICE made 956 arrests nationwide on Sunday, the agency said on X, three times the daily average for arrests in fiscal year 2024.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Ted Hesson in Washington; Additional reporting by Kristina Cooke in San Francisco and Ivelisse Rivera in San Juan; editing by Diane Craft)
