US Senator vows to hold Trump admin accountable after being handcuffed
'I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed. I was not arrested. I was not detained,' says Alex Padilla
US Senator Alex Padilla
WASHINGTON
US Sen. Alex Padilla condemned the Trump administration Thursday after he was forced to the ground and handcuffed by security agents while attempting to ask a question at a press conference.
Video of the incident taken by Fox News showed several men restraining Padilla, a Democratic senator representing the state of California, and forcefully removing him from the room where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's news conference was being held in Los Angeles.
"I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary," Padilla said as he was being dragged out of the room.
Speaking to reporters following the incident, he said that over the course of recent weeks, he and several of his colleagues have been asking the Department of Homeland Security for more information on their "increasingly extreme" immigration enforcement actions.
"So I came to the press conference to hear what she had to say, to see if I could learn any new additional information," Padilla said, adding he 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 and throughout California and throughout the country. We will hold this administration accountable," he added.
The Department of Homeland Security said Padilla chose "disrespectful political theatre" and interrupted a live news conference, without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Noem.
The department said the Secret Service "thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately."
Later, Noem and Padilla held a 15-minute meeting.
Padilla’s effort to question Noem comes as US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have conducted widespread raids across Los Angeles, leading to multiple protests that have taken place in the nation's second largest city starting last Friday.
President Donald Trump has since deployed both the California National Guard and US Marines to protect ICE agents as they carry out their immigration raids.
