Written By Lexx Thornton
Senator Alex Padilla of California was forcibly removed and handcuffed after interrupting a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday, in an episode that deepened partisan tensions over the Trump Administration’s expanded immigration enforcement efforts in Los Angeles.
The confrontation came shortly after Noem made a forceful declaration of the federal government’s intentions in the city. “We are continuing to sustain and increase our operations inthis city, we are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and burden some leadership that this governor and this mayor have placed into this city,” Noem said during the press conference.
Video footage released by Padilla’s office shows the Democratic Senator approaching the podium during Noem’s remarks: “I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the Secretary,”he said before several men, including officers wearing FBI insignia, physically pushed him back.Moments later, Padilla was shoved to the floor face-down in a hallway outside the briefing room, handcuffed, and temporarily detained in an adjoining room.
“Sir! Sir! Hands off!” Padilla shouted during the scuffle, which unfolded in front of reporters andstaff in a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, where protests have raged for nearly aweek over a Trump-ordered crackdown involving ICE, National Guard troops, and U.S. Marines.
Padilla told reporters afterward that he was in the building for a scheduled briefing with military officials when he learned that Noem, whose department oversees Immigration and CustomsEnforcement, was doing a press conference a few doors down. He said that he wanted to listen to her remarks because he had not received a response to inquiries he sent to DHS for more information on its immigration enforcement plans in his state.
“Just as we’ve emphasized the right for people to protest peacefully and to stand up for their FirstAmendment rights…I was there peacefully,” he said. “If this is how this Administration responds to a Senator with a question… you can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, cooks, laborers throughout L.A., throughout California, and throughout this country,” he said.
Padilla, a native of Los Angeles and the son of Mexican immigrants appeared to be trying to ask Noem about the mug shots appearing on a screen behind her. He was not arrested or detained in the incident.
Asked about the confrontation during the press conference, Noem initially criticized Padilla’s interruption, according to a livestream. “I think everybody in America would agree that that wasinappropriate,” she said. Noem added that she had not been contacted by Padilla prior to the event and did not know he planned to be there, but added that she would try to speak with him later to find out his concerns.