Sen. Alex Padilla on Tuesday encouraged Americans to peacefully protest against President Donald Trump’s administration and said it’s “it’s time to wake up” in his first extended remarks in the Senate since he was forcibly removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference in Los Angeles last week as he tried to speak up about immigration raids.
In emotional remarks on Tuesday, Padilla, a California Democrat, recounted the altercation, in which security forced him out of the room and onto the ground after he tried to ask Noem a question. Padilla said that even though he was accompanied by a National Guardsman and an FBI agent, “I was pushed and pulled, struggled to maintain my balance” and ended up flat on his chest on the floor.
“I was handcuffed and marched down a hallway repeatedly asking, ‘Why am I being detained?’” Padilla said as several of his colleagues from both major political parties sat in their chairs and listened. “Not once did they tell me why.”
He said he wondered in the moment if he was being arrested — he wasn’t — and, if he was, what the city and his family would think.
“What will a city already on the edge from being militarized think when they see their U.S. senator being handcuffed for just trying to ask a question?” Padilla said.
In a later statement, the Department of Homeland Security said that Padilla “chose disrespectful political theater” and that the Secret Service “thought he was an attacker.” The statement erroneously claimed that Padilla did not identify himself — he did, as he was being pushed from the room.
“Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands,” the statement said, adding that officers acted appropriately.
Padilla said he attended the press conference amid the immigration raids that have led to protests in California and around the country and as the Republican president sent military troops to his state. He said he spoke up after he heard Noem say that they wanted to “liberate” Los Angeles from Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, both Democrats.
