Democratic U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla on Thursday was forcefully removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s news conference in Los Angeles and handcuffed by officers as he tried to speak up about immigration raids that have led to protests in California and around the country.
Video shows a Secret Service agent on Noem’s security detail grabbing the California senator by his jacket and shoving him from the room as he tried to speak up during the DHS secretary’s event. Padilla interrupted the news conference after Noem delivered a particularly pointed line, saying federal authorities were not going away but planned to stay and increase operations to “liberate” the city from its “socialist” leadership.
“I’m Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” he shouted in a halting voice.
Scuffling with officers outside the room, he can be heard bellowing, “Hands off!” He is later seen on his knees and then pushed to the ground and handcuffed in a hallway, with several officers atop him.
🚨 #BREAKING @SenAlexPadilla tries to interrupt a press conference by @DHSgov Sec @KristiNoem and he’s forcibly removed.
California’s senior U.S. Senator was handcuffed and detained.
Video from @AlexPadilla4CA’s staff 🚨 pic.twitter.com/PXfszkBXxo
— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) June 12, 2025
The shocking scene of a U.S. senator being aggressively removed from a Cabinet secretary’s news conference prompted immediate outrage from his Democratic colleagues. Images and video of the scuffle ricocheted through the halls of Congress, where stunned Democrats demanded an immediate investigation and characterized the episode as another in a line of mounting threats to democracy by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said what he saw “sickened my stomach.”
“We need immediate answers to what the hell went on,” the New York senator said from the Senate floor. “It’s despicable, it’s disgusting, it’s so un-American.”
In a statement, DHS said that Padilla “chose disrespectful political theater” and that Secret Service “thought he was an attacker.” The statement claimed erroneously that Padilla did not identify himself — he did, as he was being pushed from the room.
“Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands,” the statement said, adding that “officers acted appropriately.”
The fracas in Los Angeles came just days after Democratic U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver was indicted on federal charges alleging she assaulted and interfered with immigration officers outside a detention center in New Jersey while Newark’s mayor was being arrested after he tried to join a congressional oversight visit at the facility. Democrats have framed the charges as intimidation efforts by the Trump administration.
It also follows days of rising tension between Trump and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the federal military intervention in California. In a speech earlier this week, the governor warned that “democracy is under assault before our eyes.”
Emerging afterward, Padilla said he was removed while demanding answers about the Trump administration’s “increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions.” He said he and his colleagues had received little to no response to their questions in recent weeks, so he attended the briefing for more information.
“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question … I can only imagine what they are doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers throughout the Los Angeles community, and throughout California and throughout the country,” he said.
Noem told Fox LA afterward that she had a “great” conversation with Padilla after the scuffle, but called his approach “something that I don’t think was appropriate at all.”
The White House accused Padilla of grandstanding.
“Padilla didn’t want answers; he wanted attention,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. “It’s telling that Democrats are more riled up about Padilla than they are about the violent riots and assaults on law enforcement in LA.”
Padilla, the son of immigrants from Mexico, has been a harsh Trump critic and his mass deportations agenda. In a social media post, he said of recent federal immigration raids in Los Angeles, “Trump isn’t targeting criminals in his mass deportation agenda, he is terrorizing communities, breaking apart families and putting American citizens in harm’s way.”
Padilla in 2021 became the state’s first Latino U.S. senator when he was selected by Newsom to fill Kamala Harris’ Senate seat after she was elected vice president. At the time, Padilla was the state’s chief elections officer.
Harris wrote in a social media post Thursday that Padilla “was representing the millions of Californians who are demanding answers to this administration’s actions in Southern California.” She called his forceful removal “a shameful and stunning abuse of power.”
Democratic senators quickly gathered in the chamber, denouncing the treatment of their colleague — a well-liked and respected senator — and urged Americans to understand what was happening.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Trump is making this country “look more and more like a fascist state.”
“Will any Republican senator speak up for our democracy?” Warren pleaded.
Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., called on Noem to resign, saying that there was no justification for Padilla’s treatment and that the Trump administration needed to be held accountable.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., accused Padilla of “charging” Noem and indicated that the behavior “rises to the level of a censure.”
“My view is it was wildly inappropriate,” Johnson, a Trump ally, told reporters outside the House chamber as Democrats walking past shouted over him, “That’s a lie!”
“A sitting member of Congress should not act like that,” Johnson said, loudly speaking over reporters’ questions. “It’s beneath a member of Congress. It’s beneath the U.S. senator.”
Senate Republican leader John Thune said he has spoken to Padilla and is trying to reach Noem but hasn’t yet connected with her.
“We want to get the full scope of what happened and do what we would do in any incident like this involving a senator and try to gather all the relevant information,” the South Dakota senator said.
The No. 2 Republican, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, said that he was unaware of what happened but that Padilla should have been at work in Washington.
The stark incident comes as Congress faces increasing episodes of encroachment on its authority. As a coequal branch of the U.S. government, the Trump administration is exerting its executive powers in untested ways.
As part of their work in Congress, lawmakers are responsible for providing oversight of the administration, its agencies and actions.
Several senators and representatives have been exercising their oversight roles by surveying the treatment of immigrants and others being detained as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation operation.
From the steps of the U.S. Capitol, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said what happened to Padilla “was un-American” and those involved must be held accountable.
“This is not going to end until there is accountability and until the Trump administration changes its behavior,” he said.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com