Sen. Padilla is forcefully removed from Noem's news conference on
immigration raids and handcuffed
[June 13, 2025]
By KRYSTA FAURIA, MICHAEL R. BLOOD and LISA MASCARO
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Democratic U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla on Thursday was
forcefully removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s news
conference in Los Angeles and handcuffed by officers as he tried to
speak up about immigration raids that have led to protests in California
and around the country.
Video shows a Secret Service agent on Noem’s security detail grabbing
the California senator by his jacket and shoving him from the room as he
tried to speak up during the DHS secretary's event. Padilla interrupted
the news conference after Noem delivered a particularly pointed line,
saying federal authorities were not going away but planned to stay and
increase operations to “liberate” the city from its “socialist”
leadership.
“I’m Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” he shouted
in a halting voice.
Scuffling with officers outside the room, he can be heard bellowing,
“Hands off!” He is later seen on his knees and then pushed to the ground
and handcuffed in a hallway, with several officers atop him.
The shocking scene of a U.S. senator being aggressively removed from a
Cabinet secretary’s news conference prompted immediate outrage from his
Democratic colleagues. Images and video of the scuffle ricocheted
through the halls of Congress, where stunned Democrats demanded an
immediate investigation and characterized the episode as another in a
line of mounting threats to democracy by President Donald Trump's
administration.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said what he saw “sickened my
stomach.”
“We need immediate answers to what the hell went on,” the New York
senator said from the Senate floor. “It’s despicable, it’s disgusting,
it’s so un-American.”
In a statement, DHS said that Padilla “chose disrespectful political
theater” and that Secret Service “thought he was an attacker.” The
statement claimed erroneously 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.”
The fracas in Los Angeles came just days after Democratic U.S. Rep.
LaMonica McIver was indicted on federal charges alleging she assaulted
and interfered with immigration officers outside a detention center in
New Jersey while Newark’s mayor was being arrested after he tried to
join a congressional oversight visit at the facility. Democrats have
framed the charges as intimidation efforts by the Trump administration.
It also follows days of rising tension between Trump and Democratic
California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the federal military intervention in
California. In a speech earlier this week, the governor warned that
“democracy is under assault before our eyes.”
Emerging afterward, Padilla said he was removed while demanding answers
about the Trump administration’s “increasingly extreme immigration
enforcement actions.” He said he and his colleagues had received little
to no response to their questions in recent weeks, so he attended the
briefing for more information.
“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a
question … I can only imagine what they are doing to farmworkers, to
cooks, to day laborers throughout the Los Angeles community, and
throughout California and throughout the country,” he said.
Noem told Fox LA afterward that she had a “great” conversation with
Padilla after the scuffle, but called his approach “something that I
don't think was appropriate at all.”
The White House accused Padilla of grandstanding.
“Padilla didn’t want answers; he wanted attention,” White House
spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. “It’s telling that Democrats are more
riled up about Padilla than they are about the violent riots and
assaults on law enforcement in LA.”
Padilla, the son of immigrants from Mexico, has been a harsh Trump
critic and his mass deportations agenda. In a social media post, he said
of recent federal immigration raids in Los Angeles, “Trump isn’t
targeting criminals in his mass deportation agenda, he is terrorizing
communities, breaking apart families and putting American citizens in
harm's way.”
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U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., is pushed out of the room as
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem holds a news conference
regarding the recent protests in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 12,
2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
Padilla in 2021 became the state's first Latino U.S. senator when he
was selected by Newsom to fill Kamala Harris' Senate seat after she
was elected vice president. At the time, Padilla was the state's
chief elections officer.
Harris wrote in a social media post Thursday that Padilla “was
representing the millions of Californians who are demanding answers
to this administration’s actions in Southern California.” She called
his forceful removal "a shameful and stunning abuse of power.”
Democratic senators quickly gathered in the chamber, denouncing the
treatment of their colleague — a well-liked and respected senator —
and urged Americans to understand what was happening.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Trump is making this country
“look more and more like a fascist state.”
“Will any Republican senator speak up for our democracy?” Warren
pleaded.
Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., called on Noem to resign, saying that
there was no justification for Padilla's treatment and that the
Trump administration needed to be held accountable.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., accused Padilla of “charging”
Noem and indicated that the behavior “rises to the level of a
censure.”
“My view is it was wildly inappropriate,” Johnson, a Trump ally,
told reporters outside the House chamber as Democrats walking past
shouted over him, “That’s a lie!”
“A sitting member of Congress should not act like that,” Johnson
said, loudly speaking over reporters’ questions. “It’s beneath a
member of Congress. It’s beneath the U.S. senator.”
Senate Republican leader John Thune said he has spoken to Padilla
and is trying to reach Noem but hasn't yet connected with her.
“We want to get the full scope of what happened and do what we would
do in any incident like this involving a senator and try to gather
all the relevant information,” the South Dakota senator said.
The No. 2 Republican, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, said that he
was unaware of what happened but that Padilla should have been at
work in Washington.
The stark incident comes as Congress faces increasing episodes of
encroachment on its authority. As a coequal branch of the U.S.
government, the Trump administration is exerting its executive
powers in untested ways.
As part of their work in Congress, lawmakers are responsible for
providing oversight of the administration, its agencies and actions.
Several senators and representatives have been exercising their
oversight roles by surveying the treatment of immigrants and others
being detained as part of the Trump administration’s mass
deportation operation.
From the steps of the U.S. Capitol, House Democratic leader Hakeem
Jeffries said what happened to Padilla “was un-American” and those
involved must be held accountable.
“This is not going to end until there is accountability and until
the Trump administration changes its behavior,” he said.
___
Mascaro reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Mary
Clare Jalonick and Seung Min Kim in Washington and Jaimie Ding
contributed to this report.
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