In a revealing interview on Dr. Phil Primetime, Homan clarified that the riots had already begun before federal reinforcements arrived. He recounted that on Friday, June 7, while ICE agents were conducting a planned enforcement action in L.A.’s Fashion District, they were ambushed by organized groups armed with rocks, hammers, and fireworks. In one disturbing incident, federal officers were trapped inside a federal building as crowds of protesters surrounded the premises and attempted to breach the doors.
According to Homan, these weren’t arbitrary sweeps — they were precision operations carried out after months of intelligence gathering. He revealed that the primary targets of the raid were warehouse operators and retailers allegedly linked to cartel money laundering networks based in Mexico and Colombia. These businesses, he said, were under federal investigation for a laundry list of crimes, including:
Customs fraud
Income tax evasion
Unlicensed import/export activities
And most critically, laundering millions of dollars on behalf of transnational criminal organizations
Homan declined to name the specific cartel involved, citing the sensitivity of the ongoing investigation, but emphasized that the individuals under scrutiny were “not your average undocumented workers — these were cartel-linked facilitators operating deep inside American commerce hubs.”
During Friday night’s multi-pronged raid — which included seven coordinated strikes across L.A. County — federal authorities apprehended 45 undocumented immigrants, many of whom had prior criminal records or outstanding warrants. Among the most high-profile arrests was a Mexican national previously deported twice, who had returned illegally to the U.S. and had prior convictions for homicide and burglary.
“This wasn’t about politics,” Homan told Dr. Phil. “This was about disrupting dangerous criminal enterprises operating right under our noses — enterprises that are putting American lives at risk, trafficking drugs, laundering money, and funding violence on both sides of the border.”
Homan also lambasted California officials for mischaracterizing the operation and fanning the flames of public anger.
“It’s disingenuous for Governor Newsom and others to claim the unrest began because of the National Guard,” Homan said. “The violence had already started by the time Guard units were activated. What sparked this wasn’t the military — it was federal agents daring to touch the untouchable: cartel-linked enterprises with deep roots in California’s shadow economy.”
Critics of the raids have claimed that federal forces escalated tensions unnecessarily, but Homan countered that officers were met with violence before they had even completed their initial searches.
He warned that these types of coordinated actions are becoming more necessary as cartels expand their reach into American cities, often blending into legitimate industries. “They’re not just operating along the border anymore,” Homan said. “They’re in your malls, your shipping centers, your neighborhoods. And they’re laundering millions while they do it.”
The raids are part of a broader national crackdown on transnational organized crime, and more coordinated ICE actions are expected in the weeks ahead — not just in California, but in Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, and New York City, all of which have been identified as key financial nodes in global cartel activity.
As the political firestorm continues in Sacramento and Washington, Homan made it clear that law enforcement is moving forward, regardless of the pushback.
“You can call us names, you can twist the narrative,” Homan said. “But we’re not going to back down from doing what needs to be done to protect this country.”