Daytime TV host Dr. Phil McGraw joined US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers during a targeted deportation operation in Chicago on Sunday, accompanying Trump administration “border czar” Tom Homan on a mission that ended in the arrest of an illegal immigrant previously convicted of sex crimes involving children.

“It’s a pretty high-risk mission we’re going on,” Dr. Phil said ahead of the operation. “This truly is a targeted ICE mission, because they’re not sweeping neighborhoods like people are trying to imply. These are known criminals and terrorists. We’re talking about murderers, child traffickers, child rapists. We’re talking about bad actors, both in the countries they’ve come from and since they’ve been here in the United States.”

The operation, which was carried out in multiple cities simultaneously, aimed to arrest 270 “high-value” targets and resulted in 956 arrests nationwide on Sunday, focusing on individuals with serious criminal backgrounds.

As part of his show on MeritTV, McGraw briefly interviewed a detainee later identified as Sam Seda, a Thai national tied to multiple sex crimes.

“JUST IN: The first arrest in Chicago with [Tom Homan] was a convicted sex offender and internet predator from Thailand,” Dr. Phil wrote on X, providing footage of his encounter with the illegal immigrant.

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“We got an illegal alien, convicted of sex crimes involving children. He’s walking the streets of Chicago,” Homan said. “Again, the downfall, the problems with the sanctuary city—people like this walking the streets, rather than local law enforcement working with federal agents. This is what we’re dealing with.”

When asked directly if ICE is preparing to conduct raids on schools to round up the children of illegal immigrants, Homan sternly denied such allegations. Chicago Public Schools had previously reported incorrectly that ICE agents had entered a school on the city’s Southwest Side, fueling misinformation about the methods the agency is using to track down criminal offenders.

Nevertheless, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson remains committed to upholding the city’s status as a migrant refuge, vowing to protect the non-citizen population from deportation efforts.

“I find it unconscionable that this administration would attempt to create not just division but fear within our public schools,” Johnson said, directing city departments to “stand firm” and uphold the Illinois Trust Act, which prohibits local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration enforcement efforts.

In a separate clip of his time with ICE, Dr. Phil blamed these very sanctuary city policies for making agents’ jobs more difficult and dangerous.

“If these people are in detention and ICE agents can come into the jail and arrest them there and put them on the path towards deportation, at that point, they can that they can do that in complete safety,” said Dr. Phil.

“It’s a controlled environment. Whereas tomorrow, later today actually, we’re going to have to go after these people out in a in a free environment where an apartment complex or an apartment project where there are a lot of civilians around,” he added. “And if they resist, if they open fire on these agents, you have to return fire. Then people can get caught in the crossfire.”

He emphasized the need for cooperation between sanctuary cities and federal enforcement to ensure community safety.

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Connor Walcott is the lead writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”

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