Noem was talking about demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in L.A. at the time.
Shortly before 12:30 p.m., Padilla exited the federal building in Los Angeles and spoke to reporters outside, where he said he had not been arrested or detained.
Padilla said he was at the federal building to attend a briefing “as part of my responsibility as a senator to provide oversight and accountability” when he learned that Noem was holding a press conference in another room. He said he went to seek answers on the administration’s “increasingly extreme immigration actions,” because he had been unable to get a meeting with Department of Homeland Security officials.
When he began to ask a question, he said, he was “almost immediately forcibly removed from the room.”
“I will say this,” Padilla said outside the federal building. “If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, 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 farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country. We will hold this administration accountable.”
Padilla has long been an outspoken supporter of immigrants and migrant workers. The son of Mexican immigrants and the first Latino to represent California in the Senate, he began his political career in L.A. in the 1990s after protesting against Proposition 187, which excluded undocumented immigrants from a swath of public benefits.
Mike Madrid, a longtime political consultant, said in a social media post that he had known Padilla for 25 years, “and never seen anything like this. It’s so out of character for his measured personality — he’s a living example of how Latinos feel right now.”
In a statement, Gov. Gavin Newsom called the incident “outrageous, dictatorial and shameful,” adding that “Trump and his shock troops are out of control.”
