Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to emotionally describe the moments that led to him being forcefully removed from a news conference last week focused on the Trump administration's response to the immigration protests in Los Angeles.
Padilla was in the same Los Angeles federal building last Thursday where Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was outlining President Trump's decision to send in National Guard troops and U.S. Marines in response to the protests. Padilla said that a meeting he had scheduled with a separate official down the hall was delayed by the Noem event, so he decided to attend.
Padilla said he asked to attend and was escorted into the press conference by FBI and National Guard officials. As he tried to question Noem, another set of officials grabbed him and removed him from the room.
"You've seen the video. I was pushed and pulled, struggled to maintain my balance. I was forced to the ground. First on my knees and then flat on my chest, and was handcuffed and marched down a hallway repeatedly asking, 'Why am I being detained?'" Padilla recalled. "Not once did they tell me why. I pray you never have a moment like this."
The Department of Homeland Security initially accused Padilla of "disrespectful political theatre," charging that he did not comply with requests to back away. Secretary Noem said she and Padilla eventually spoke after the scuffle.
In his remarks Tuesday — his first on the Senate floor since the incident — Padilla said his detainment marked a turning point in what he described as the Trump administration's "undemocratic crackdown" on protest.
"At one point," Padilla said, "the United States Secretary of Homeland Security said that the purpose of federal law enforcement and the purpose of the United States military was to, quote, liberate Los Angeles from our governor and our mayor. To somehow liberate us from the very people that we democratically elected to lead our city and our state."
Padilla called the remark an "un-American mission statement."
He railed against President Trump's efforts to focus raids on regions led by Democratic officials, and urged his colleagues to fight back.
He took to the Senate floor surrounded by his Democratic colleagues. Several Senate Republicans, including Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and North Carolina's Thom Tillis were also in attendance.
Padilla, the son of Mexican immigrants, is an MIT engineering graduate who entered politics after marching with his parents for immigration rights. He was appointed to his seat in 2021 to fill the vacancy created after Kamala Harris became vice president and won election the following year. He is the first Latino to represent California in the Senate.
Over the course of his roughly 20-minute address, Padilla said his experience should "shock the conscience of our country." And he warned that if President Trump "can deploy the Marines to Los Angeles without justification, he can deploy them to your state too."
"No one will redeem America but Americans. No one is coming to save us but us," Padilla said. "And we know that the cameras are not on 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."
Copyright 2025 NPR
