Dr Phil reveals truth about ICE raids that triggered LA protests as he slams media for ‘untrue’ reporting

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Amid swirling rumors and mis­in­for­ma­tion about the recent immi­gra­tion raids and the result­ing unrest in Los Ange­les, TV per­son­al­i­ty Phil McGraw, aka Dr Phil, has come for­ward to clar­i­fy the facts sur­round­ing the sit­u­a­tion.

The unrest began after approx­i­mate­ly 40 indi­vid­u­als sus­pect­ed of being in the US ille­gal­ly were detained dur­ing a fed­er­al raid at a Los Ange­les appar­el com­pa­ny. This oper­a­tion sparked wide­spread protests, which esca­lat­ed into vio­lent clash­es between demon­stra­tors and law enforce­ment offi­cers.

The events have since fueled fur­ther con­tro­ver­sy over the media’s cov­er­age and the fed­er­al government’s immi­gra­tion enforce­ment poli­cies.

Dr Phil sets the record straight on federal immigration operation in Los Angeles

In an op-ed for the Dai­ly Mail, Dr Phil firm­ly denied any direct involve­ment in fed­er­al immi­gra­tion enforce­ment actions dur­ing the recent Los Ange­les raids, offer­ing a detailed writ­ten account to dis­pel the grow­ing wave of mis­in­for­ma­tion.

“Over the past sev­er­al days, all man­ner of alle­ga­tions have been made about legal and tar­get­ed fed­er­al immi­gra­tion enforce­ment oper­a­tions in Los Ange­les — and my appar­ent involve­ment in them,” Dr Phil wrote. “So many of these claims are untrue, pro­vok­ing unnec­es­sary dis­trac­tions and more of the destruc­tive rage that already per­vades too much of our polit­i­cal dia­logue. So allow me to set the record straight.”

The 74-year-old said he “was privy to the para­me­ters of the oper­a­tion and con­duct­ed an on-cam­era inter­view with bor­der czar Tom Homan the evening before the Fri­day [June 6] oper­a­tion and on the Sat­ur­day morn­ing after­ward for broad­cast on MeritTV.”

He was also “present for a mul­ti-agency brief­ing ear­ly Fri­day morn­ing at ICE’s LA head­quar­ters involv­ing the FBI, ATF, US Mar­shal Ser­vice, and the IRS

Based on his insights, Dr Phil stren­ly wrote that “con­trary to what’s been report­ed — or more accu­rate­ly, not report­ed — in the main­stream media, fed­er­al activ­i­ties on June 6 did not con­duct a ran­dom round-up of ille­gal immi­grants in Los Ange­les.” 

Dr Phil elab­o­rat­ed on the actions tak­en dur­ing the fed­er­al immi­gra­tion oper­a­tion tied to the events in Los Ange­les, explain­ing, “To obtain a search war­rant, the gov­ern­ment is required to present evi­dence to a fed­er­al judge who will eval­u­ate if there is prob­a­ble cause to issue such a war­rant and that was done regard­ing a par­tic­u­lar com­pa­ny in LA.”

He went on to iden­ti­fy the tar­get of the oper­a­tion, “The pri­ma­ry busi­ness tar­get­ed in Fri­day’s oper­a­tions was Ambiance Appar­el, which, I’m told, is sus­pect­ed of involve­ment in crim­i­nal activ­i­ty. Now, accord­ing to the White House bor­der czar Tom Homan, the trou­bled man­u­fac­tur­er is being inves­ti­gat­ed again for alleged mon­ey laun­der­ing, tax eva­sion, and cus­toms fraud.”

Dr Phil con­tin­ued, “After fed­er­al offi­cers raid­ed that com­pa­ny facil­i­ty, they audit­ed the work­force and report­ed­ly encoun­tered some 40 indi­vid­u­als believed to be in the US ille­gal­ly. Fol­low­ing US law, they took those indi­vid­u­als into cus­tody.”

Phil McGraw speaks onstage dur­ing the 50th Acad­e­my of Coun­try Music Awards at AT&T Sta­di­um on April 19, 2015, in Arling­ton, Texas (Get­ty Images)

He described the treat­ment of the detainees, stat­ing, “I was at ICE’s LA head­quar­ters when these indi­vid­u­als were brought in, and I can report that these peo­ple were treat­ed with dig­ni­ty and respect, offered food and waterand then inter­viewed.”

Sum­ming up the oper­a­tion, he not­ed, “In short, Fri­day [June 6] oper­a­tions were a strate­gic enforce­ment of the law — delib­er­ate and legal­ly sanc­tioned.”

Dr Phil says response of ‘so-called activists’ has been dangerous, destructive and utterly lawless

After explain­ing the rea­sons behind the ICE raids and how the author­i­ties han­dled the deten­tion of approx­i­mate­ly 40 indi­vid­u­als sus­pect­ed of being in the US ille­gal­ly, he described how the sit­u­a­tion esca­lat­ed into the LA protests, fueled by cer­tain activists and wide­spread mis­in­for­ma­tion.

He slammed the activists, writ­ing, “But the response of some so-called activists, on the oth­er hand, have been dan­ger­ous, destruc­tive and utter­ly law­less.”

Dr Phil went on to shed light on the unrest that fol­lowed. “Riot­ers attacked law enforce­ment offi­cers throw­ing chunks of bro­ken con­crete and oth­er pro­jec­tiles at mov­ing vehi­cles. Oth­ers blocked agents from doing their jobs. Still more ram­paged through the city loot­ing, destroy­ing pub­lic prop­er­ty, and even torch­ing cars in the streets,” he men­tioned. 

Dr Phil insists we need a ‘media willing to inform, not inflame’

Dr Phil also took aim at the media for fuel­ing mis­in­for­ma­tion, assert­ing that the immi­gra­tion enforce­ment oper­a­tion was con­duct­ed legal­ly and with due process. He urged those seek­ing change to pur­sue it through the prop­er demo­c­ra­t­ic chan­nels, not through vio­lence.

“The truth, though it may be hard to hear, can’t be avoid­ed: laws are not sug­ges­tions. They aren’t ‘option­al,’ and being a good per­son or work­er does not grant immu­ni­ty from them,” he stat­ed. “If these impas­sioned pro­test­ers real­ly want change, they should show up in Wash­ing­ton, DC, to protest Con­gress or write to their rep­re­sen­ta­tives to demand leg­isla­tive reform.”

A pro­test­er throws a rock at police who were stag­ing on the 101 free­way dur­ing clash­es on June 8, 2025, in Down­town Los Ange­les, Cal­i­for­nia (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

He fur­ther empha­sized the dis­tinc­tion between pol­i­cy and enforce­ment: “While the right to peace­ful protest is the cor­ner­stone of our democ­ra­cy, the ICE agents who risked their safe­ty to per­form their jobs are nei­ther politi­cians nor law­mak­ers. They did not put pen to paper to pro­pose these poli­cies — they are mere­ly oper­at­ing under a sworn duty to enforce the law, not rewrite it.”

Chal­leng­ing the behav­ior of some demon­stra­tors, he asked, “But throw­ing rocks at law enforce­ment offi­cers? Block­ing vehi­cles? That’s not speech, it is crim­i­nal con­duct, plain and sim­ple — and it cer­tain­ly should not deter ICE oper­a­tions. Make no mis­take the vio­lence per­pe­trat­ed against ICE and oth­er law enforce­ment offi­cers is not a nego­ti­a­tion for jus­tice. It is a demand for sur­ren­der. But that can­not hap­pen.”

He con­clud­ed with a call for ratio­nal dis­course: “If you want to change immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy — fine. Let’s have that debate. Let’s talk reform. We need more truth, not more rage. And we need a media will­ing to inform, not inflame.”