Five years after the brutal end of George Floyd’s life in US Police’s heavy handling tactics, US Democrat Senator Alex Padilla was lucky enough to survive when Federal agents shoved, forced him to the ground and handcuffed after attempting to ask a question at a press conference in Los Angeles on Thursday.
The incident took place at the press conference held by US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about immigration raids.
“I am Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” Padilla said during the press conference, where Noem was discussing protests in the city over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“Sir! Sir! Hands off!” Padilla, 52, shouted as federal agents tried to muscle him out of the room inside a government office building about 15 miles west of downtown Los Angeles where Noem was speaking. “I am Senator Alex Padilla. I have a question for the secretary.”
A video shared by Padilla showed what happened next: Three agents pushed him to the ground and handcuffed his hands behind his back.
As Padilla — an MIT graduate, the son of Mexican immigrants and a Los Angeles native — began asking about a bank of mug shots behind Noem, 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 Padilla’s office and a Fox News reporter.
In the tense hyper-partisanship of the moment, the episode quickly swelled into a cause célèbre for both parties. Democratic senators, House members and governors rushed to denounce the treatment of a sitting senator, framing it as the latest escalation in authoritarian actions by the Trump administration.
It followed the indictment on Tuesday of Representative LaMonica McIver of New Jersey and the arrest of Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, after the officials, both Democrats, tried to visit a new immigration detention facility in the city.
Republicans just as eagerly tried to frame Padilla’s behavior as in line with what they have called the lawlessness of the political left as President Trump tries to combat illegal immigration.
The US Department of Homeland Security in a statement on X accused Padilla of engaging in “disrespectful political theater”.
“@SecretService thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately,” the department said, adding that Noem later met with Padilla.
Padilla said in a statement he was released shortly after.
“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 farmers, to cooks, to day-laborers throughout the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country,” Padilla said.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino defended agents’ actions on social media.
“The senator in question was not wearing a security pin and physically resisted law enforcement when confronted,” Bongino said, referring to the lapel pins senators typically wear in the Capitol. “Our FBI personnel acted completely appropriately while assisting Secret Service.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the video of the press conference “reeks of totalitarianism.”
Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey called Padilla’s treatment “a pattern and a practice. This is not an isolated incident,” referencing the Newark incident.
“I have been here for more than 32 years,” said Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington state. “I cannot believe that we don’t have senators on both sides of the aisle calling this out as outrageous.”
Many Republicans found fault with Padilla’s actions.
“He should have been here in Washington voting. He has a responsibility to his constituents to show up at work, not to go try to make a spectacle of himself,” Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, told reporters.
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a maverick in her party who in the past has said that Trump’s threats of political retaliation make people “afraid,” criticized Padilla’s treatment.
“Senator Padilla is a big, tall guy, and to see how he was handled out of that room is wrong and sick,” she told reporters at the Capitol.