Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, was forcibly removed on Thursday from a news conference being held by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and handcuffed after he pushed past guards at a federal building in West Los Angeles.
“Sir! Sir! Hands off!” Mr. Padilla, 52, shouted as federal agents tried to muscle him out of the room where Ms. Noem was speaking inside a government office building about 15 miles west of downtown Los Angeles. “I am Senator Alex Padilla. I have a question for the secretary.”
As Mr. Padilla — an M.I.T. graduate, the son of Mexican immigrants and a Los Angeles native — began questioning the authenticity of a bank of mug shots behind Ms. Noem, agents shoved him out of the room, told him to drop to his knees in a hallway and handcuffed him, based on videos taken by Mr. Padilla’s office and a Fox News reporter.
transcript
Senator Padilla Forcibly Removed After Confronting Noem
Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, was forced to the floor, handcuffed and removed by federal agents after interrupting a news conference by the homeland security secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday.
“Sir, sir.” “Hands up. Hands up. “I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary because the fact of the matter is, a half a dozen violent criminals that should —” “On the ground. Hands behind your back. Hands behind your back.” “If you let me — “All right. Cool — lay flat, lay flat.” “Other hand, sir. Other hand.” “I was there peacefully. At one point, I had a question. And so I began to ask a question. I was almost immediately forcibly removed from the room. I was forced to the ground and I was handcuffed.” “We had a great conversation.” “We’re all set up over there.” “Well, we will give you a few comments.” “Yeah let’s go.” “I know the Senator — we had a great conversation. Sat down and talked for 10, 15 minutes about operations in L.A., some activities of the Department of Homeland Security. And so I thought it was very productive. And I wish that he would have reached out and identified himself, and let us know who he was and that he wanted to talk. I’ll let the law enforcement speak to how this situation was handled, but I will say that its — people need to identify themselves before they start lunging at people that are doing press conferences.”
A small group of reporters pivoted their cameras toward the disruption. Other national and local journalists were forced to wait outside the building after officials blocked access to the news conference shortly before the event began.
In the tense hyperpartisanship of the moment, the incident quickly swelled into a cause celebre for both parties. Democratic senators, House members and governors rushed to denounce the treatment of a sitting senator, framing it as the latest escalation in authoritarian actions by the Trump administration. It came after the indictment on Tuesday of Representative LaMonica McIver of New Jersey and the arrest of Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, after both tried to visit a new immigration detention facility in the city.