Television star Dr. Phil McGraw shot back at the Democrats’ narrative on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids that sparked a violent outburst from rioters in Los Angeles last week, revealing the “primary” business targeted in those raids was a clothing company “suspected of involvement in criminal activity.”
While the daytime host and network boss was “embedded” with ICE during previous raids in Chicago, multiple establishment media outlets erroneously reported that he was once again “embedded” with agents conducting the raids last Friday, which was not the case.
“So allow me to set the record straight,” McGraw wrote in an op-ed published Thursday in the Daily Mail.
“Despite the so-called ‘reporting,’ I was not actually ’embedded’ with Immigration and Customs enforcement officers making arrests during the raids in LA on Friday, June 6,” he said, explaining that he was “privy to the parameters of the operation and conducted an on-camera interview with Border Czar Tom Homan” that Thursday evening, and on the Saturday morning after the raids for broadcast on his network, MeritTV.
McGraw was also present for a multi-agency briefing with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), U.S. Marshal Service, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) at ICE’s Los Angeles headquarters and drove through the area with Homan the morning of the raid.
On Monday, CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that McGraw was “embedded” with ICE during the raids themselves; CNN only updated its story several days later with a statement from a MeritTV spokesperson, who said, “In order to not escalate any situation, Dr. Phil McGraw did not join and was not embedded.”
Other leftist outlets were more dramatic in their exaggerated reporting of McGraw’s involvement, with MSNBC’s Ja’han Jones saying he “double[d] down on his role as a MAGA propagandist” amid the ICE raids.
According to the left-wing blogger, figures like McGraw “are proving essential in whipping up right-wing hysteria over immigrants.”
In an article titled “This is truly the darkest, dumbest timeline,” the Washington Post‘s Monica Hesse wrote, “a person you have all heard of was apparently embedded” with the ICE raids “that led us to this hellish week, and that person was Dr. Phil.”
The Los Angeles Times‘ Mary McNamara wrote, “Why on earth is Dr. Phil involved in immigration raids? Another made-for-TV event from a reality star president.”
Despite coordinated leftist media campaigns drumming up sympathy for the few dozen illegal migrants that were detained in the raids, McGraw said ICE “did not conduct a random round-up of illegal immigrants in Los Angeles.”
“Rather, their coordinated multi-agency operations were conducted pursuant to a duly authorized federal search warrant — not a rumor nor hunch,” he continued, before naming Ambiance Apparel as the business that is “suspect of involvement in criminal activity.”
In McGraw’s sit-down interview with Homan, the border czar said the Los Angeles clothing warehouse is part of a “bigger investigation” into alleged money laundering, tax evasion, and customs fraud — which could be connected to larger criminal organizations like Latin American cartels.
According to the television host, “This is not the first time that this company has been in hot water.”
In 2020, the business and its owner, Sang Bum ‘Ed’ Noh were accused by federal prosecutors of undervaluing imports and skirting millions of dollars in tariffs. Ambiance Apparel pleaded guilty to eight offenses, such as conspiracy and money laundering, and Noh was sentenced to a year in prison.
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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.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has confirmed that the migrants arrested included convicted rapists, drug traffickers, and human smugglers.
The Los Angeles Times sympathized with Ambiance Apparel, writing, “At a troubled fashion company, workers found community. Then ICE came.”
“Fear grips LA’s Fashion District after ICE arrests at garment manufacturer,” reads a Los Angeles Public Press headline.
McGraw went on to denounce the anti-ICE protests, which quickly devolved into violent riots with some protesters attacking ICE agents, police, civilians, and local businesses, which led President Donald Trump to send in the National Guard to address the situation.
“In short, Friday operations were a strategic enforcement of the law — deliberate and legally sanctioned. But the response of some so-called activists, on the other hand, have been dangerous, destructive and utterly lawless,” he wrote.
He continued by wondering why there weren’t protests against Barack Obama, who, McGraw said, deported almost three million illegal immigrants, leading him to conjecture that this week’s rioters may be “motivated more by politics than principle.”
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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