California Sen. Alex Padilla was handcuffed by federal agents Thursday after he interrupted a press conference held by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles.
About five minutes into a press conference at the Westwood federal building, Noem told the media that the Trump administration planned to “liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that the governor and the mayor have placed on this country.”
Padilla, who was standing near a wall on one side of the room, then tried to interrupt Noem to ask a question, video footage shows. Cameras turned toward him as two Secret Service agents tried to push him backward, one saying: “Sir, sir, hands up.”
“I’m Senator Alex Padilla,” he said, as one agent grabbed his jacket and shoved him backward on the chest and arm. “I have questions for the secretary, because the fact of the matter is that half a dozen violent criminals that you’re rotating on your — on your …”
“Hands off!” Padilla said, as three agents pushed him into a separate room.
Padilla, a Democrat who was raised by Mexican immigrants in the northeast San Fernando Valley, got into politics in the 1990s over his dismay with anti-immigrant sentiment, and this week has encouraged Los Angeles residents to protest the immigration sweeps.
“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question,” Padilla said later, his eyes welling with tears, “if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, I can only imagine what they’re doing to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country.”
Laura Eimiller, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Padilla was escorted out of the room by the Secret Service and FBI police officers who act as building security, but was not arrested. Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino said that Padilla had not been wearing a security pin and “physically resisted law enforcement when confronted.”
Noem continued without mentioning the disruption, telling reporters that immigration agents have been “doxxed from doing their duty, how they have been targeted and their families have been put in jeopardy.”
The video of Padilla’s “freakout,” said White House Communications Director Steven Cheung in a post on X, “shows the public what a complete lunatic Padilla is by rushing towards Secretary Noem and disturbing the informative press conference.” Videos from the room showed Padilla interrupting Noem, but did not show him rushing toward her.
After being escorted to the separate room and led a few doors down, Padilla raised his hands in front of his chest as the agents marched him past an office cubicle and down a hallway, a video taken by a member of Padilla’s staff and shared with The Times showed.
The agents forced Padilla to his knees and then to his chest, his face against the carpet. One agent said, “On the ground, on the ground, hands behind your back.”
The officers bent one of Padilla’s arms behind his back and attached a handcuff, then said, “Other hand, sir? Other hand.”
One federal agent turned to the member of Padilla’s staff who was filming and said, “There’s no recording allowed out here, per FBI rights.”
Noem told reporters she met with Padilla privately for about 15 minutes after the incident, then said, “I wish that he would have reached out and identified himself and let us know who he was and that he wanted to talk.”
His approach, she said, “was something that I don’t think was appropriate at all, but the conversation was great, and we’re going to continue to communicate.”
At a makeshift podium outside the federal building, Padilla said he was attending a briefing with Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of the U.S. Northern Command, when he learned of the press conference.
He said he and fellow Democrats have received “little to no information” from the administration, so he attended the press conference “to hear what she had to say, to see if I can learn any new additional information.”
“At one point I had a question, and so I began to ask a question,” Padilla said. “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’s run-in with federal agents was decried by Democrats in California, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called the detainment “outrageous, dictatorial and shameful.”
“Trump and his shock troops are out of control,” Newsom said. “This must end now.”
At a press conference downtown Thursday afternoon, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said federal agents had “shoved and cuffed a sitting U.S. senator,” as people behind her booed.
“How could you say that you did not know who he was?” Bass said. “We see the video tape, we see him saying who he was — but how do you not recognize one of two senators in our state? And he is not just any senator. He is the first Latino citizen senator to ever represent our state.”
Sen. Adam Schiff, the other Democrat representing California in the Senate, blasted the behavior of federal agents as “disgraceful and disrespectful,” saying it “demands our condemnation.”
Padilla “represents the best of the Senate,” Schiff said on X. “He will not be silenced or intimidated. His questions will be answered. I’m with Alex.”
Some Republicans in California condemned Padilla’s behavior, including John Dennis, the chairman of the California Republican County Chairmen’s Association, who said on X that “Padilla represents the emotional, violent, self-indulgent California Democrats leadership.”
“Do you want your senator behaving this way?” Dennis asked.
And Republican state Assemblymember Joe Patterson of Rocklin wrote, “If I busted into a press conference with the Governor or Sen. Padilla, I promise you, the same exact thing would happen to me.” He later added: “The whole entire incident really sucks. I didn’t like to see this occur at all.”
In Washington, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said on the Senate floor that the video of Padilla being handcuffed “sickened my stomach.”
“It’s despicable. It’s disgusting,” he said. “It is so un-American, so un-American, and we need answers. We need answers immediately.”
Times staff writers Richard Winton and Nathan Solis contributed to this report.
