Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) was thrown to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents while trying to ask DHS Secretary Kristi Noem questions at her Los Anglees, CA press conference.
Sen. Alex Padilla was just handcuffed and detained while standing up to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at her LA press conference.
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 12, 2025
This is not America. pic.twitter.com/mZ7bFNdA3e
Padilla later gave a brief statement outside the Los Angeles federal building:
I’m here in Los Angeles today, and I was here in the federal building in the conference room awaiting a scheduled briefing from federal officials as part of my responsibility as a senator to provide oversight and accountability. While I was waiting for the briefing with General Guillot, I learned that Secretary Noem was having a press conference a couple doors down the hall.
Over the course of several weeks several of my colleagues have been asking the Department of Homeland Security for more information…and we’ve gotten little to no information in response to our inquiries.
I was there peacefully. At one point, I had a question, and so I began to ask a question. I was almost immediately forcibly removed from the room, I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed. I was not arrested. I was not detained.
I will say this: if this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question. If this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community, throughout California and throughout the country.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) condemned the attack on Padilla.
(Sources: Twitter/X, CNN via YouTube)