Police handcuffed Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and pushed him to the ground Thursday after forcibly removing him from a press conference Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was holding in Los Angeles.
Padilla had entered the room and interrupted Noem as she was speaking about her department’s plans to continue deportation efforts in California, even as the Trump administration’s recent immigration enforcement operations have stirred a wave of protests there.
The senator said after the incident that he was not arrested or detained. DHS blamed Padilla for the altercation, but said he and Noem later held a 15-minute meeting.
Video shared with NBC News’ Jacob Soboroff by Padilla’s staff shows two officers pulling the senator by the arms after he enters the room.
“I am Senator Alex Padilla,” he says as the officers push him toward an exit and he pushes back with his body, the video shows.
“I have questions for the secretary, because the fact of the matter is, a half a dozen violent criminals that you’re rotating on your, on your,” Padilla says before being overwhelmed by multiple officers and shoved out of the room.
The video shows Padilla is then moved to a hallway where three officers put him on his knees, push him onto his stomach and order him to put his hands behind his back before handcuffing him.
A voice is then heard on the video saying that no recording is allowed in the hallway.
Just before Padilla’s confrontation with law enforcement, Noem declared in the presser, “We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country.”
The FBI told NBC News in a statement that Padilla was temporarily detained by the U.S. Secret Service “when he became disruptive while formal remarks were being delivered.”
“Senator Padilla was not wearing his senate security pin; however, was subsequently positively identified and released,” the FBI said.
Padilla, speaking to reporters later Thursday, vowed to hold the Trump administration accountable.
“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 throughout the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country,” he said.
Padilla’s office said in a statement that the senator was in LA to exercise “his duty to perform Congressional oversight of the federal government’s operations in Los Angeles and across California.”
“He was in the federal building to receive a briefing with General Guillot and was listening to Secretary Noem’s press conference,” the statement said. “He tried to ask the Secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed.”
US Senator Alex Padilla, who interrupted the press conference held by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, is removed from the venue, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 12, 2025.
Aude Guerrucci | Reuters
DHS defended the officers’ actions and accused Padilla of engaging in “disrespectful political theatre.”
The senator “interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem,” the department said in a statement on X.
The video shows Padilla did verbally identify himself as a senator prior to his removal.
DHS added that Padilla “did not comply with officers’ repeated commands” to back away.
It also claimed that U.S. Secret Service agents “thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately.”
Nevertheless, “Secretary Noem met with Senator Padilla after and held a 15 minute meeting,” DHS said.
The video instantly sparked outrage from Democrats.
“I just saw something that sickened my stomach: The manhandling of a United States senator,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the floor of his chamber.
“We need immediate answers to what the hell went on,” Schumer said.
“What just happened to @SenAlexPadilla is absolutely abhorrent and outrageous,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass wrote on X.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has clashed with President Donald Trump over his administration’s immigration operations in LA, wrote, “If they can handcuff a U.S. Senator for asking a question, imagine what they will do to you.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson in a statement to NBC claimed Padilla “wanted attention” and “embarrassed himself” with “this immature, theater-kid stunt.”
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