Dr. Phil Urges Americans to ‘Stand Up for This Country’ on Securing Southern Border

The talk show host said he welcomes immigrants into this country, ‘but we need to know who they are.’

Dr. Phil McGraw visits SiriusXM at SiriusXM Studios in New York City on Feb. 27, 2024. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Dr. Phillip McGraw, host of the daytime talk show “Dr. Phil” and author of the newly published book, “We’ve Got Issues,” is urging Americans to “stand up for this country” amid the southern border crisis.

Mr. McGraw lamented the lack of support for the nation’s efforts to secure the southern border during a recent appearance on Fox News’s “Jesse Watters Primetime.” He said people were afraid to speak out in favor of a strong border for fear of being labeled anti-immigration.

“But that’s missing the point, isn’t it?” he queried. “Because we’re not talking about immigration. We’re talking about illegal immigration,” he said, affirming that he is “very pro-immigration.”

Mr. McGraw reiterated his stance, saying immigrants are very much needed in the country, but with the caveat that they enter legally. He cited the nation’s ever-declining fertility rate—which dropped to 1.64 in 2020, down from 2.12 in 2007, according to the Population Reference Bureau.

“We need 2.1 to sustain our infrastructure here,” Mr. McGraw warned. “I welcome immigrants into this country, but we need to know who they are.”

From January to September 2023, nearly 1.4 million illegal immigrants entered Texas, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. With so many people streaming into the United States, the talk show host said properly vetting immigrants was crucial for keeping out foreign enemies and those on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist.

Mr. McGraw expressed his unwavering patriotism. “I love this country,” he shared.

“And we need to all stand up for this country and stop apologizing for this country—stop apologizing for having rules and guidelines—[and] stop apologizing for having a border that’s not a turnstile.”

Visiting the Southern Border

While speaking with Joe Rogan during a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Mr. McGraw reflected on his day-long visit to the Texas-Mexico border earlier this month.

“I was shocked when I got down there,” he shared. He noted the marked difference between state and federal guards when it came to deterring illegal immigration—a crime that is currently punishable in the United States as a felony.

“There are the Texas border guards and they wear brown uniforms, and then there are the federal that wear green. And if you get apprehended by a brown uniform, you get arrested, processed, and sent back,” he explained.

However, Mr. McGraw said if you get apprehended by a guard wearing a green uniform, “you get arrested, processed, given a court date—in four years, seven years, or whatever—and released into the country.”

While visiting Texas, Mr. McGraw said he was able to speak with Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council. When he asked Mr. Judd what troops needed to do their job, the union leader said border patrol didn’t need additional funds, more agents, or new legislation.

“‘We just need you to let us do our job. We just need you to apply the laws that exist now, and we’ll be fine,‘” Mr. McGraw recalled from the conversation. “’We’re not trying to keep people out; we just want to have enough of a flow control that we know who’s coming in.'”

Fear of Speaking Up

While speaking with Mr. Watters, Mr. McGraw recalled a study from his new book, “We’ve Got Issues,” presumably a 2023 analysis published in the journal “Political Science Quarterly.”

It found that the percentage of Americans unwilling to express their views has tripled since 1954. Furthermore, it revealed that over 40 percent of people engaged in self-censorship in 2020.

COVID-19 pandemic restrictions also began in 2020. During a Feb. 26 appearance on “The View,” Mr. McGraw criticized the effect that COVID-related school shutdowns had on children.

“It was the safest group; they were the less vulnerable group,” he shared. “And they suffered and will suffer more from the mismanagement of COVID than they will from the exposure to COVID. And that’s not an opinion, that’s a fact,” he added.

Children weren’t the only ones affected. According to KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, symptoms of anxiety and depression, drug overdose fatalities, alcohol-induced deaths, and suicide death rates all increased amid the pandemic.

Mr. McGraw said he believed the public was largely afraid to speak out about divisive issues facing the United States—such as illegal immigration and oppressive COVID-19 policies—for fear of cancel culture.

“People don’t want to talk now ... with the advent of social media platforms and the different ways that you can be targeted and labeled,” he told Mr. Watters.

“People just say, ‘Look, it’s easier not to speak out,’ and that has to stop,” he implored. “There has to be a call to action.”

To quell the growing discord in the United States surrounding many pressing issues facing citizens today, Mr. McGraw said the pathway forward involved finding common ground.

“We need people that will focus on solving problems instead of winning arguments,” he said. “You’ve got left and right … focus on what [we can] agree on.

“Everybody agrees we want a stronger America, everybody agrees we want our kids to have a better world than we had … everybody agrees that we want a good economy, everybody agrees that we want more safety, everybody agrees on so many core things,” he continued.

“Let’s focus on what we agree with first and then see if we can start talking about our differences.”