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Alex Padilla took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to deliver a deeply personal speech, formally entering into the congressional record his account of being restrained and forcibly removed as he attempted to ask a question at a press conference held by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, in Los Angeles last week.
In emotional remarks, Padilla described the encounter that he hoped would serve as a “wake up call” for Americans – a warning, he said, of how quickly democratic norms can slip away when dissent is silenced and power is unchecked.
“If that is what the administration is willing to do to a United States senator for having the [audacity] to simply ask a question,” Padilla said, “imagine what they’ll do to any American who dares to speak up”.
In his floor speech, Padilla said he was in Los Angele to conduct congressional oversight of the administration’s escalating immigration operations in the city. That morning, he was at the federal building that morning for a scheduled briefing with US northern command’s General Gregory Guillot related to the president’s order to deploy US marines to the city in response to protests against immigration raids that left Latino communities shaken and afraid.
Upon his arrival, Padilla said that he was met at the building’s entrance by a national guardsman and an FBI agent. He was then escorted through a security screening and into the conference room where the briefing was set to take place.
When he learned that Noem was holding a press conference “literally down the hall” – and that it was the reason his own briefing was delayed – Padilla said he asked to attend. He and his colleagues had numerous outstanding information requests regarding the department’s immigration enforcement tactics, and he thought he’d listen in to see if the secretary said anything that might “help us make sense of what was happening”.
“I didn’t just stand up and go – I asked,” he said.
According to Padilla, the guardsman and FBI agent then “escorted” him into the room where Noem was delivering remarks to reporters. “They opened the door for me. They accompanied me into the press briefing room, and they stood next to me as I stood there for a while listening,” he said.
When Noem declared that the federal law enforcement and military personnel would “liberate” Los Angeles from its Democratic governor and mayor – what the senator denounced as an “un-American mission statement” – he said he could no longer remain silent.
“I was compelled, both as a senator and as an American, to speak up,” Padilla said. “But before I could even get out my question, I was physically and aggressively forced out of the room, even as I repeatedly announced I was a United States senator, and I had a question for the secretary, and even as the national guardsmen and the FBI agent who served as my escorts brought me into that press briefing room, stood by silently, knowing full well who I was.”
Padilla recalled being dragged into a hallway and forced onto the ground, Padilla recalled, his voice catching as he described being brought to his knees and then pressed chest-first against the floor. “I was handcuffed and marched down a hallway repeatedly asking, ‘Why am I being detained?’ Not once did they tell me why?” he said. “I pray you never have a moment like this.”
As it was happening, Padilla said his thoughts turned to his family: “What will my wife think? What will our boys think?” And then to his constituents – those in a city already on edge, militarized against the wishes of the governor and local enforcement – how would they react when they saw the images of their US senator – the first Latino elected to the chamber from California – in handcuffs.
When asked about Padilla’s removal during the press conference, Noem said she didn’t recognize the two-term senator and claimed he hadn’t requested a meeting. According to DHS, Noem and Padilla met for for 15 minutes following the incident.
The FBI has stated that its agents believed Padilla was an attacker and responded appropriately, while faulting the senator for not wearing a pin identifying him as a member of Congress. The Guardian’s requests for comment from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Guard and the Secret Service were not immediately returned.
In a statement on Tuesday, the White House dismissed Padilla’s floor speech as a “temper tantrum”.
“Alex ‘Pay Attention to Me’ Padilla is bouncing from one desperate ploy for attention to the next,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, adding: “Whether or not Democrats like it, the American people support President Trump’s agenda to deport illegal aliens.”
But Padilla, who noted he has never had a reputation as a “flame-thrower”, challenged his colleagues in both parties to consider what the episode revealed about the state of American democracy.
“If you watched what unfolded last week and thought what happened is just about one politician and one press conference, you’re missing the point,” he said. Democrats and some Republicans condemned the incident. But administration officials – and many Republicans – blamed Padilla, with the House speaker Mike Johnson suggesting he should be censured for his actions.
Padilla accused Trump of being a “tyrant” who had ordered Guard troops and US marines into Los Angeles to “justify his undemocratic crackdowns and his authoritarian power grabs”. He said Trump was surrounded by “yes men” and a pliant Congress who refused to reign in the president tries everything to “test the boundaries of his power”.
Padilla, the “proud” son of Mexican immigrants, warned that what is happening in his state could spread nationwide.
“I refuse to let immigrants be political pawns on his path towards fascism,” he said. He described the situation in California as a “test case” for what could happen to “any American anywhere in the country”.
As Padilla spoke in Washington, images emerged from New York where Brad Lander, the city’s comptroller and a candidate for mayor, had been arrested by masked federal agents as he visited an immigration court.
“It’s time to wake up,” Padilla said, urging Americans to continue to peacefully protest the administration. “If this administration is this afraid of just one senator with a question … imagine what the voices of tens of billions of Americans peacefully protesting can do.”
The Democrats in the chamber erupted in applause.
