Padilla says in Senate 'it's time to wake up' after forced removal from
Noem's event
[June 18, 2025]
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and MICHAEL R. BLOOD
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 I
am 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 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 statement afterward, the Department of Homeland Security said that
Padilla “chose disrespectful political theater” and that the 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.
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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, Thursday, June 12,
2025. (David Crane/The Orange County Register via AP)
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.
“Let that fundamentally un-American mission statement sink in,”
Padilla said.
Padilla and his angry Democratic colleagues have framed the episode
as intimidation by the Trump administration, especially as it came
days after Democratic 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
Democratic mayor, Ras Baraka, was being arrested after he tried to
join a congressional oversight visit at the facility.
Padilla encouraged Americans to speak out.
“No one is coming to save us but us,” Padilla said. “And we know
that the cameras are not in every corner of the country. But if this
administration is this afraid of just one senator with a question,
colleagues, imagine what the voices of tens of millions of Americans
peacefully protesting can do.”
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