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A visibly upset Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) addressed reporters Thursday after he was roughed up by federal agents and ejected from a press conference in Los Angeles after attempting to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question.
The Democratic senator said he had decided to attend the conference after DHS failed to respond to his inquiries about its “increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions” in his state.
“I was there peacefully,” he noted. “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.”
Padilla held back tears as he reflected on what his treatment must mean for lower-profile people the administration is detaining.
“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 farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country,” he said angrily. “We. Will. Hold. This. Administration. Accountable.”
DHS hit back at Padilla in a statement full of half-truths, claiming he “lunged” toward Noem, didn’t identify himself and “did not comply with officers’ repeated commands.”
Video of the incident shows Padilla clearly identifying himself as “Senator Alex Padilla” and saying he had a question for the secretary as he’s roughly shoved out of the room, forced to the ground and placed in handcuffs.
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Watch Padilla’s remarks about the incident below:
English (US) ·