Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla spoke about being detained and handcuffed on the ground by law enforcement while attempting to question Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem during a press conference.
“If that’s how they treat a senator trying to ask a question… then imagine… what they are doing to so many people without titles,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash during an appearance Sunday on State of the Union.
Video of the dramatic moment quickly spread across the internet. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Padilla “tried to manufacture a viral moment.”
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Padilla said in response.
Homeland Security on X alleged that Padilla “lunged” at Noem, but video of the incident does not show the senator lunging at all. Sen. Patty Murray called DHS’ claim “a lie.”
“We all saw the video,” Murray wrote on Bluesky. “The Senator clearly identified himself, and he did not ‘lunge’ toward anyone. If these miserable propagandists will lie to you about roughing up a U.S. Senator in a room full of reporters, what won’t they lie to you about?”
Padilla said he was in a federal building nearby to receive a briefing from Northern Command about the Trump administration’s decision to federalize the National Guard in response to protests against immigration detentions in Los Angeles when he heard Noem was holding a briefing in a building “a couple of doors down” from where he was.
Padilla said that Trump sending in the Marines only “escalated the tensions in Los Angeles.” So he saw the press conference as “an opportunity to ask a question, maybe get answers that DHS, including the secretary, will not provide in committee hearings in the Senate, will not respond to the letters that we have sent inquiring. It was an opportunity to ask a question and do my job as a senator, do my job as a senator in questioning the cabinet secretary.”
When Bash wondered whether law enforcement knew that Padilla was a senator, pointing out that he identified himself as such, Padilla said, “This is my hometown. They know who I was. And what does it say about the secretary to not know who the senator from California is, the ranking member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration?”
Padilla said he was “escorted by an FBI agent and a National Guards member” from the time he entered the building, and he criticized Noem for allowing his detention rather than de-escalating.
“How does the secretary of homeland security not know how to de-escalate a situation?” he said. “It’s because she can’t or because they don’t want to. And it sets the tone. Donald Trump and Secretary Noem have set the tone for the Department of Homeland Security and the entire administration in terms of escalation and extreme enforcement actions.”
Criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, Padilla said, “If all the Trump administration was doing was truly focusing on dangerous, violent criminals, as they suggest, there would be no debate… But we have seen story after story after story of hardworking women and men, maybe undocumented, but otherwise law-abiding, good people, being subject to the terror that this immigration enforcement operation is subjecting the people to.”
“I needed to speak up,” he added. “I needed to try to get the information from the secretary that they have refused to provide in hearing after hearing.”
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