LOS ANGELES—Sen. Alex Padilla (D., Calif.) was forcibly ejected from a press conference Thursday and handcuffed after he tried to confront a top administration official over President Trump’s immigration crackdown in the city.
Padilla attempted to interrupt Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s remarks at the event and was grabbed and removed by several men. Noem and others were addressing immigration raids and the federal response to protests that have spread across the city, saying they would forge ahead with their operations.
“I am Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” Padilla shouted while being removed from the room. Video shows him then being placed on the ground and handcuffed. He was later released without being charged.
The incident sparked a firestorm on Capitol Hill, where Democrats pointed to it as an example of what they have called the administration’s authoritarian impulses, days after
Trump ordered National Guard troops and Marines
to Los Angeles to quell disorder, over the objections of state officials. DHS said Secret Service officers weren’t initially aware Padilla was a senator when they removed him, and some Republicans painted his actions as a stunt.
Speaking to reporters later, Padilla said the confrontation wasn’t planned. He said he was at the same federal building as Noem for a scheduled briefing from a different official about the deployment of the National Guard in downtown Los Angeles when he learned of her press conference down the hall. He said he was frustrated by the lack of response he had received from DHS on what he called their extreme enforcement actions.
“So I came to the press conference to hear what she had to say, to see if I could learn any new additional information,” he said. Recounting his treatment, he said, “you can only imagine what they’re doing to farmers, to cooks, to day laborers” in Los Angeles and elsewhere.
Federal officials said his removal was appropriate. A DHS spokeswoman said that Padilla “chose disrespectful political theater and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself.” She said Padilla was told to back away and didn’t comply with officers’ commands, and that Secret Service officers “thought he was an attacker.”
After the press conference, Noem said she and Padilla met after the incident and exchanged phone numbers.
“His approach was something I don’t think was appropriate at all, but the conversation was great, and we’re going to continue to communicate,” Noem said.
“I’ll let law enforcement speak to how this situation was handled but I will say people need to identify themselves before they start lunging at people during press conferences,” she said.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said the agency’s personnel “acted completely appropriately,” and that Padilla wasn’t wearing a security pin to identify himself.
In recent days, Trump has deployed more than 700 U.S. Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops to the greater Los Angeles area to protect federal agents and property. California has sued the Trump administration over the move, saying it is an unconstitutional use of executive power.
A federal judge
held a hearing on the matter Thursday afternoon.
During the press conference, Noem reaffirmed the administration’s operations in the region, saying, “We are not going away.” Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said “no protesters are going to stand in our way.”
Footage of Padilla’s removal prompted immediate outrage from some officials. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, of which Padilla is a member,
called for an immediate investigation
.
“Senator Alex Padilla is one of the most decent people I know,” Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on
X with a video
of the incident. “This is outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful.”
Senators watched a clip of the incident on the Senate floor shortly after it appeared on social media on Thursday afternoon.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) condemned the administration over the incident, and said Padilla was there legitimately in the building to ask questions about what is going on in California. “This reeks of totalitarianism,” he said.
Other Democratic colleagues lined up to denounce Padilla’s treatment in a series of floor speeches. “This is how you lose a Democracy, actions like today,” said Sen. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.).
Centrist Republicans also said they were alarmed by the incident. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) called the video shocking. “It’s not the America I know,” she said.
But many Republican lawmakers said Padilla was out of line.
“Alex is normally a thoughtful and well-reasoned member, but when you go into someone else’s press conference to disrupt it…you have to expect a reaction,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.). Issa said Padilla made an “error in judgment” and hoped the whole thing would soon blow over. “No harm, no foul,” Issa said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) took a harsher view.
“It was wildly inappropriate,” he told reporters. In a reference to the immigration debate, he said Democrats have been “defending lawbreakers, and now they are acting like lawbreakers themselves.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Padilla “should be ashamed of his childish behavior today.”
In May, the Justice Department
charged
a Democratic congresswoman, Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, with assault after a confrontation with federal law-enforcement officials who arrested Newark’s mayor outside an immigration detention center.
Write to Jack Morphet at
[email protected]
, Lindsay Wise at
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and Robert Barba at
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