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US Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla was forcefully removed from a press conference in Los Angeles Thursday and coerced to the ground after attempting to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question.
Padilla, California’s first Latino elected to the US Senate, interrupted Noem as she was giving remarks in the Los Angeles FBI headquarters on the administration’s response to the protests in that city against Noem’s agency and its immigration-enforcement efforts. The senator had been in the federal building for a separate briefing when he learned of the press conference.
Padilla was removed from the room, ordered to the ground by law enforcement and placed in handcuffs during the rapidly unfolding incident.
The incident comes amid a heightened atmosphere in Los Angeles, which has been roiled with protests against President Donald Trump’s federal immigration raids. While the senator was ultimately not arrested, his ejection from the room by law enforcement follows the arrests of other public officials, who the administration has accused of impeding its enforcement of immigration laws.
“I was there peacefully,” Padilla said in his first public remarks shortly following the incident. “At one point I had a question, and so I began to ask a question. I was almost immediately forcibly removed from the room. I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed. I was not arrested. I was not detained.”
He added: “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 farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country.”
Noem said the US Secret Service “thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately.”
“I wish that he would have reached out and identified himself and let us know who he was and that he wanted to talk. His approach was something that I don’t think was appropriate,” she said.
Video of the incident shows the senator identifying himself as officers grabbed him and pushed him toward a door.
The pair, Noem said, later met and had a “great conversation.” “Sat down, talked for 10, 15 minutes about operations in LA, some activities of the Department of Homeland Security, and so I thought it was very productive,” she told reporters.
Following the incident, Padilla urged people protesting the Trump administration to do so peacefully. In the coming days, thousands of protests are planned across the country as Trump plans to host a military parade in Washington, DC, this weekend.
“There is a lot of concern, there is a lot of tension, there is a lot of anxiety, and a lot of people are beginning to make plans for what they or may or may not do come this Saturday,” the senator said.
He added: “I encourage everybody to please peacefully protest – just like I was calmly and peacefully listening in that press conference.”
No charges are currently planned against the senator, two law enforcement sources told CNN.
Video of the confrontation shows the senator disrupting Noem during her opening remarks at the event on DHS’ response to the protests, identifying himself as he was toward the door.
“I’m Sen. Alex Padilla,” he shouted as he was led out of the room. “I have questions for the secretary.”
The senator appeared to take a couple of steps forward as he was being forced back. Noem remained at her podium and attempted to speak over the senator.
“Because the fact of the matter is, a half a dozen violent criminals that you’re rotating onto your—,” Padilla said as he was pushed out a set of double doors.
He shouted, “hands off!” as Noem continued her remarks, and he did not finish his question.
Video taken by Padilla’s aides outside the room showed officers ordering him to his knees and demanding he put his hands behind his back. Uniformed FBI police officers, who provide security for bureau facilities, placed him in handcuffs as he lay on the ground.
Asked about the incident later during the press conference, Noem responded: “I don’t even know the senator.”
“He did not request a meeting with me or to speak with me. So when I leave here, I’ll have a conversation with him and visit and find out, really, what his concerns were.”
The pair spoke privately after the press conference.
Elected officials, including several of Padilla’s colleagues in Congress, immediately denounced the way he was treated and described it as a brutish overreaction.
In Washington, California Democrats and Democratic leaders swiftly condemned the “manhandling” of the senator and demanded investigations into the incident.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he was “sickened” by the treatment of Padilla and called for “immediate answers to what the hell went on.” While his counterpart in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, vowed to hold the officers who forcibly removed Padilla from the press conference accountable.
“The assault on Senator Padilla today was an assault on freedom of speech in our country. It’s a federal offense to attack a member of Congress. But that’s not what it’s about, it shouldn’t be anybody in our country to be treated this way,” said Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the former Democratic House speaker.
Fellow California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff said he was “disgusted,” called on Noem to resign and said there should be an investigation of the conduct of the officers involved.
“He has every right to ask questions, indeed, that’s his responsibility and to be treated the way he was to be essentially bought to the ground and shackled after identifying himself is a disgraceful action,” Schiff told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus also demanded a full investigation into the incident.
While a large group of House Democrats marched from the House side of the Capitol to Majority Leader John Thune’s office to pressure Republicans to respond, the GOP leader provided a more muted response.
Thune said he is trying to investigate the facts surrounding the incident to determine next steps. He has spoken directly with Padilla, he said, as well as has tried to reach Noem and brought in the Senate sergeant-at-arms, the top law enforcement official in the Senate.
“We want to get the full scope of what happened and do what we would do on any incident like this involving a senator, which is to try to gather all the relevant information,” Thune said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, for his part, sharply criticized Padilla.
“I think the senator’s actions, my view is it was wildly inappropriate. You don’t charge a sitting Cabinet secretary, and everybody can draw their own conclusions,” Johnson told reporters as a group of hecklers behind him audibly countered: “That’s a lie.”
Johnson appeared to try to keep his composure as he ignored the heckles.
“A sitting member of Congress should not act like that. It is beneath a member of Congress. It is beneath a US senator. They’re supposed to lead by example, and that is not a good example. You have to turn the temperature down in this country and not escalate it. The Democrat Party is on the wrong side. They were defending lawbreakers, and now they’re acting like lawbreakers themselves,” the speaker went on to say.
Still, two Senate Republicans did express concern.
“I think it’s very disturbing,” Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said of the video showing Padilla being removed, though she added: “I don’t know what preceded it.”
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, meanwhile, told reporters she had also seen the video, saying: “It’s horrible. It is shocking at every level.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Josh Campbell, Alison Main, Nicky Robertson, Aileen Graef and Molly English contributed to this report.
