Opinion

Trump Uses Dr. Phil in Actual, Real ICE Raids, Making Destroying Lives and Families Must-See TV

Dr. Phil did what on the what now?

Trump finally did it. He finally figured out how to turn America into an actual reality TV show. It’s like Fascist Eye for the Marginalized Guy and  Real Nosedives of Washington, D.C. all rolled into one.

It doesn’t hurt that Trump is not only a former reality TV host himself, but friends with all kinds of reality TV stars as well. Caitlyn Jenner is a pal, of course, but he boasts plenty more. Sean Duffy from Real World: Boston is his nominee for Transportation Secretary. Dr. Oz is in charge of Medicare. The new Education Secretary is reality TV O.G. Linda McMahon, of professional wrestling fame.

Dr. Phil McGraw, however, is in a class of his own. He didn’t get a Cabinet position or anything, but he’s been such a true supporter of Donald Trump and such an avowed racist that Trump allows him exclusive access to televised ICE raids. He’s actually showing people being swept up by ICE agents on his show.

Dr. Phil is embedded with Tom Homan, the “Border Czar,” specifically to televise the arrest of what presumably will be gajillions of illegal immigrants wanted for torture and necrophilia in their home countries of Transylvania and Mexico. This promises to be just like that Spanish language weekend variety show Sabado Gigante, only in English and without any of the jokes and music.

Dr. Phil makes a compelling point in embedding with Homan: If ICE agents are allowed to go to jails and hospitals and schools and just round people up, all it will leave are the 85% of the rest of the criminals in the country who are native-born.

Wait, I don’t think that’s the point he was trying to make. But it’s the one he’s making anyway. As everyone knows, undocumented immigrants are less than half as likely to commit any crime, violent or otherwise, than native-born US citizens. And of the immigrants that do make up our prison population, a third of them are incarcerated only on illegal entry charges.

But the video that Dr. Phil just posted did a couple of things: Number one, it made an outline for what they plan to show on this raid series, which is hand-picked criminals who happen to be in the country illegally, shown so they can make it look like the majority of immigrants ARE criminals.

And number two, it underscores that they have no interest in actually rounding up criminals, just criminals who are here illegally.

If ICE has the resources to go on the “targeted” raids that Dr Phil thinks are so important, then they have the ability to find anyone who’s still walking the streets after a million arrests for various crimes.

One example of a raid Dr. Phil went on, though, ended with an impromptu and awkward interview with a convicted sex offender from Thailand in which the suspect is surprised to find himself face to face with Dr. Phil.

McGraw asks him his name, where he was born, what he’s been charged with — before, not currently; the clip doesn’t indicate whether the person has been charged with any crime other than illegal entry here in the US — and whether or not he’s a citizen.

Again, this is not a law enforcement agent doing a routine interrogation or anything. This is “that one guy from Oprah” putting immigrants on TV for the express purpose of making more Americans hate immigrants.

“You’re Dr. Phil!” the man exclaims. “Yeah, how do you know me?” Phillip Calvin McGraw, you know exactly how he knows you. You’re on FREAKING TV and he’s been in the country long enough to be completely immersed in American culture.

While no one could possibly be opposed to getting people currently wanted for a crime off the streets, it disgusts me that they’ve made such a mockery of it, a complete circus.

If we’re just rounding up people who have been found guilty of something and making sure they’re not on the streets, why haven’t we applied that kind of metric to the most important property in the country, the White House?

We all get it: They want to Make America White Again. But turning this nation into a reality show all for some kind of weird hate campaign is just gross.

I hope this show goes very, very badly for them.

meet the author

Andrew is a dark blue speck in deep red Central Washington, writing with the conviction of 18 years at the keyboard and too much politics to even stand. When not furiously stabbing the keys on breaking news stories, he writes poetry, prose, essays, haiku, lectures, stories for grief therapy, wedding ceremonies, detailed instructions on making doughnuts from canned biscuit dough (more sugar than cinnamon — duh), and equations to determine the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow. A girlfriend, a dog, two cats, and two birds round out the equation, and in his spare time, Drewbear likes to imagine what it must be like to have spare time.

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