By Chase Smith
Contributing Writer
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was forcibly removed from a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles on Thursday. The incident occurred after Padilla interrupted Noem and attempted to ask her a question during her remarks on protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
Video footage from inside the room shows Padilla interrupting as Noem spoke alongside law enforcement officials.
“I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary, because the fact of the matter is a half a dozen —” he said before security personnel pulled him away. As he was escorted out, Padilla was heard shouting, “Hands off.”
Another video shared on social media appears to show Padilla on the ground in a hallway outside the room, with federal agents restraining his hands behind his back with zip ties.
During a question-and-answer portion, Noem briefly addressed the senator’s interruption.
In a statement, Padilla’s office said the senator was in Los Angeles “exercising his duty to perform congressional oversight of the federal government’s operations in Los Angeles and across California.”
The statement said the senator had been in the federal building for a briefing with a general and had been listening to Noem’s conference when he attempted to speak. The office confirmed that he was “forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed,” but added that he is not currently detained and that they are working to “get additional information.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X that the secretary met with Padilla for 15 minutes after the incident.
“Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theater and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem,” DHS said in the statement. “Mr. Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands. @SecretService thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately.”
During a question-and-answer portion of the press conference, Noem briefly addressed the senator’s interruption.
“I don’t even know the senator, he did not request a meeting with me or to speak with me, so when I leave here, I will have a conversation with him and visit and find out really what his concerns were,” she said. “I think everybody in America would agree that that wasn’t appropriate, that if you wanted to have a civil discussion, especially as a leader, a public official, that you would reach out and try to have a conversation.”
At a press conference about an hour later, outside the federal building where the incident happened, Padilla gave a brief statement but did not take questions. He said he was at the federal building to receive a scheduled briefing from federal officials as part of his Senate oversight responsibilities when he learned Noem was holding a press event nearby and walked over to listen in.
Padilla said that in recent weeks, he and other senators had asked the Department of Homeland Security for more information about its “increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions” but received little to no response.
“At one point, I had a question,” he said. “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.”
In an emailed statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “Padilla stormed a press conference, without wearing his Senate pin or previously identifying himself to security, yelled, and lunged toward Secretary Noem.”
She continued, adding, “Padilla didn’t want answers; he wanted attention. Padilla embarrassed himself and his constituents with this immature, theater-kid stunt — but it’s telling that Democrats are more riled up about Padilla than they are about the violent riots and assaults on law enforcement in L.A.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned the incident in a post on X, calling it “outrageous, dictatorial and shameful.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass described the senator’s removal as “abhorrent and outrageous.”
“He is a sitting United States senator. This administration’s violent attacks on our city must end,” she wrote.
In a post on X, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded “immediate answers.”
Padilla became California’s first Latino U.S. senator after Newsom appointed him in January 2021 to fill the seat vacated by Vice President Kamala Harris. He then won both a special and full term in the November 2022 elections.
