Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, was forcibly removed from a news conference being held by Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, and handcuffed on Thursday after he pushed past guards at a federal building in West Los Angeles.
“Sir! Sir! Hands off!” Mr. Padilla, 52, shouted as federal agents tried to muscle him out of the room where Ms. Noem was speaking inside a government office building about 15 miles west of downtown Los Angeles. “I am Senator Alex Padilla, I have a question for the secretary.”
As Mr. Padilla — a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the son of Mexican immigrants and a Los Angeles native — began to question the authenticity of a bank of mug shots behind her, agents shoved him out of the room, told him to drop to his knees in a hallway and handcuffed him, based on videos taken by Mr. Padilla’s office and a Fox News reporter.
A small group of reporters pivoted their cameras toward the disruption. Other national and local journalists were forced to wait outside the building after officials blocked access to the news conference shortly before the event began.
The secretary was at a podium thanking the U.S. Army, the Marines and the National Guard for providing “security” when Mr. Padilla made his entrance.
Mr. Padilla told reporters that he learned of Ms. Noem’s news conference while he was waiting for a scheduled briefing down the hall. He said he has asked for answers about the administration’s “increasingly extreme” immigration actions and has not been able to get them.
Mr. Padilla was not detained, and he had a conversation with the secretary for about 10 to 15 minutes after the news conference, Ms. Noem said.
She said that his approach without “identifying himself” was inappropriate. “I will say that people need to identify themselves before they start lunging at people,” she said.
In a statement, the senator’s office said that he was “in Los Angeles exercising 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. He tried to ask the secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed. He is not currently detained, and we are working to get additional information,” the statement said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California denounced the action. The senator “is one of the most decent people I know,” Mr. Newsom wrote in a social media post. “This is outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful. Trump and his shock troops are out of control. This must end now.”
Word swiftly reached Washington, where Mr. Padilla’s colleagues saw video of the incident.
Senators in both parties raised strong objections to the treatment of Mr. Padilla. “I think it is very disturbing,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who acknowledged she was unsure what led up to the confrontation. “It looks like he is being manhandled and physically removed. It is hard to imagine a justification for that.”
Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, addressed the Senate floor regarding treatment of Mr. Padilla.
“I just saw something that sickened my stomach,” he said. “The manhandling of a United States Senator. We need immediate answers to what the hell went on.”
Carl Hulse contributed reporting.
Shawn Hubler is The Times’s Los Angeles bureau chief, reporting on the news, trends and personalities of Southern California.
Jill Cowan is a Times reporter based in Los Angeles, covering the forces shaping life in Southern California and throughout the state.
The post Senator Alex Padilla Forcibly Removed and Handcuffed After Interrupting Noem appeared first on New York Times.
