Senate Democrats on Tuesday called on Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, to testify at a hearing on Capitol Hill about the forcible removal of Senator Alex Padilla of California from a news conference she was holding last week.
In a letter to the committee’s Republican chair, the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee also said they wanted to question her about the Trump’s administration’s immigration enforcement, including the use of masked agents to make arrests, whether immigration officials were defying court orders and the justification of mass deportations via the Alien Enemies Act.
The group of 10 senators, which includes Mr. Padilla, characterized the California senator’s treatment by federal agents last week as part of a pattern of abuses of presidential power. He was shoved out of a room, told to drop to his knees in a hallway and handcuffed.
“The treatment of Senator Padilla is the latest in a string of attacks on our constitutional order,” the senators wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The New York Times.
Though Ms. Noem has come to the Capitol several times in the past month for hearings related to her department’s budget, she has not come before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Republicans control the committee and its subpoena power, and Democrats cannot call hearings or compel testimony. According to the senators’ letter, the top Democrat on the committee, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, has sent eight letters and briefing requests to the Homeland Security Department that have gone unanswered.
Mr. Padilla has characterized his attendance at a news conference in Los Angeles week as part his effort to seek responses from the Trump administration over its immigration policy. Federal agents removed and handcuffed him after he tried to ask Ms. Noem a question about the enforcement efforts.
A Homeland Security spokeswoman accused him of engaging in “disrespectful theater” and said that the Secret Service mistook him for an attacker because he was not wearing his Senate security pin.
In a 20-minute speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Mr. Padilla said that the incident heightened his concerns that the Trump administration was violating the due process rights of immigrants and infringing on Americans’ constitutional rights to free speech and peaceful protest.
At times getting choked up, Mr. Padilla described being “physically and aggressively forced out of the room, even as I repeatedly announced I was a United States senator.” And he said that as he was handcuffed and “marched down a hallway,” he was concerned that he might be arrested or detained. Ultimately, he was not.
But likening Mr. Trump to an authoritarian, Mr. Padilla said that his experience suggested that the Trump administration might take bold steps to quiet dissent.
“If that is what the administration is willing to do to a United States senator for having the authority to simply ask a question, imagine what they’ll do to any American who dares to speak up,” he said.
Michael Gold covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on immigration policy and congressional oversight.
The post Senate Democrats Want Noem to Testify After Senator Is Pushed and Handcuffed appeared first on New York Times.
