The TV personality Dr Phil joined the US border czar, Tom Homan, in a choreographed immigration raid in Chicago, one of several conducted in US cities over the weekend in what Homan claimed was only “the beginning stages” of Donald Trump’s promised threat to deport millions of people from the country.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) said it had made 956 arrests on Sunday, bringing the total since Trump took office to 2,681 arrests – short of the 1,200 to 1,500 daily arrests that Trump has reportedly demanded. The Washington Post reported that Trump’s White House has issued a directive to Ice field offices that they should make 75 arrests daily and that agency managers would be held responsible for missed targets, raising fears of indiscriminate arrest tactics.
Homan said several of those apprehended had been convicted of crimes including murder and sex crimes. Co-ordinated raids between several law enforcement agencies including the FBI; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Customs and Border Protection; and the US Marshals Service were confirmed in Chicago, Illinois.
Homan told ABC News that the administration was only “in the beginning stages” of carrying out its mass deportation plan, making public safety threats and national security threats a “priority”, but “as that aperture opens, there’ll be more arrests nationwide”.
The administration has already relaxed guidelines that block arrests of individuals without legal status in schools, churches and hospitals, or near “sensitive locations”.
In Chicago, where Ice confirmed it was conducting “enhanced targeted operations”, Dr Phil – the American TV mental health personality whose full name is Phil McGraw – joined an arrest operation with Homan.
In a post on X, Dr Phil claimed Ice aimed to pick 270 “high-value targets” and said the agents were “not sweeping neighborhoods like people are trying to imply”.
A justice department official claimed that the first arrest observed by the US acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove, who also joined Homan’s publicity event, involved an person living illegally in the US who had “killed a 19-year-old woman while driving under the influence”.
The immigration enforcement agency also said it made arrests outside a Home Depot in Tucson, Arizona, and in neighborhoods with Dominican immigrants in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In Denver, Colorado, federal agents reportedly arrested 41 people, including four said to be members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, at a “makeshift nightclub” early on Sunday morning.
The DEA told CBS that the immigration status of all the arrestees was “questionable” and that they had seized drugs, weapons and cash. The detainees were handed over to Ice, according to Steffan Tubbs of the DEA’s Rocky Mountain division.
The focus on Tren de Aragua, or TdA, comes after Trump made several apartment blocks in neighboring Aurora said to have been taken over by the gang a focal point for his anti-illegal immigration campaign message. Aurora city officials said last week they were seeking to close down a sixth apartment building due to gang activity.
Meanwhile, Navajo Nation leaders have reportedly expressed concern over reports that Indigenous people belonging to their tribe as well as others had been detained in immigration sweeps in and around Phoenix. And the mayor of San Jose, California, confirmed Ice agents were conducting targeted actions there.
As the California news station KRON reported, the San Jose mayor, Matt Mahan, said the local police force was not involved “in any way” and he hoped Ice “remains focused on enforcement actions related to violent and serious criminals – not neighbors who are contributing and law-abiding members of our community”.
The escalating federal law enforcement actions against undocumented immigrants has set up what could be a showdown between state and local officials in so-called “sanctuary cities” such as Chicago and Denver.
Under “sanctuary” laws, local law enforcement is prohibited from co-operating with federal deportation actions. Homan has warned Democratic-controlled cities not to interfere with the actions. “If you don’t, get the hell out of the way,” he said in a speech to Republicans last year.
In an interview on Sunday, the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, said he intended to cooperate with efforts to deport those accused of or convicted of violent crimes, but would also enforce Illinois’ own “sanctuary state” laws.
“We’re going to follow the law in Illinois,” Pritzker told CNN. “We expect them to do the same, and I’m very afraid they will not follow the law”.
Illinois’ senators, the Democrats Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, also issued a statement warning that the administration’s deportation efforts was likely to go beyond deporting criminals and instead sweep in veterans, essential workers and other people without criminal records.
“We can all agree we that [we] must remove dangerous individuals who are here illegally. But the actions being taken by the Trump admin go beyond those goals,” the senators said, adding that they stood with immigrant communities and their offices “are ready to help those improperly caught up in these raids”.
