Federal agents forcibly removed U.S. Senator Alex Padilla from a Homeland Security press conference in Los Angeles on earlier today, pushing him to the ground and handcuffing him in a skirmish widely condemned by California Democrats.
Workplace raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents started last Friday. They have spurred widespread protests, confrontations between activists and agents and President Donald Trump's extraordinary deployment of the National Guard.
In videos of the incident shared on social media, Padilla identifies himself in front of an array of news cameras. He said he had "questions for the secretary" as two men, apparently with the Secret Service, pushed him away from Noem's lectern and toward the door.
He seemed to be challenging Noem's assertion that immigration agents had focused on arresting "violent criminals" when guards pushed him into the hallway.
Three armed men, two of them in FBI uniforms, forced Padilla onto the ground and handcuffed him behind his back. Another tells the person recording the video, who identifies himself as a Padilla staffer, to stop recording.
Homeland Security officials wrote on the department's X account that Padilla's interruption was "disrespectful political theatre" and that Secret Service agents thought he was an attacker.
