Senator Alex Padilla of D-Calif will speak at the Biden-Harris Campaign and DNC Press Conference held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 18, 2024. (Photo: Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)
Federal Law Enforcement Officer I was forced to remove it and handcuffed Senator Alex Padilla at a press conference in Los Angeles Thursday by Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
It represented a brawl between law enforcement, including officers wearing jackets with the FBI logo, and a stern escalation of tension after President Donald Trump ordered LA to 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines. His actions continued to the Major The protest sparked US immigration and customs enforcement officials have intensified immigrant raids.
Before Padilla was physically removed, Noem said the Trump administration would continue to enforce immigration in LA.
“We’re not gone,” said Noem, former governor of South Dakota. “We are here to free the city from socialists and burdensome leadership from what this governor and this mayor put in this country and what they tried to insert into the city.”
Padilla, 52, was appointed in place of former vice president Kamala Harris and was elected in 2022 before being a senator and was elected in 2022, rushing to federal law enforcement, trying to ask questions to Noem.
“I’m Senator Alex Padilla and I have a question for the Director,” he said as four federal law enforcement officials grabbed him and shoved him into the ground. “Hands off.”
DHS I wrote it on social media An executive at the Secret Service in the US believed that “he was an attacker and the officer acted appropriately.”
DHS said Noem and Padilla had a 15-minute meeting after the press conference. His office did not respond to a newsroom request for comment.
In a statement, Padilla’s office said the California senator was in LA to monitor Congressional oversight of federal government activities in Los Angeles and California.
“He was in the federal wing to receive a briefing with General Guillot and listening to Secretary Norm’s press conference,” his office mentioned General Gregory M. Guillot, commander of the Northern United States.
“He tried to ask a question to his secretary, forced to remove him by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed. He is not currently in custody and we are working to get additional information.”
The incident sparked rapid rebukes from Congressional Hispanic Caucus and New York Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
“When I watched this video, the piloting of U.S. Sen. Padilla’s stomach was tiresome,” Schumer wrote on social media. “We need an immediate answer as to what hell did.”
On the Senate floor, Schumer said Padilla’s video was “totalitarian reeks.”
He called for a full investigation so that “this will never happen again.”
Padilla made a statement after the incident, With Associated Press. He didn’t ask questions.
“If this is how this administration responds to senators with questions, and this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to senators with questions, then we can only imagine what they are doing to farm workers, cooks, and daytime workers in the Los Angeles community,” Padilla said.
