Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in Los Angeles Thursday morning providing an update on immigration operations and protests in the area, when she was interrupted by Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, who was then forcibly removed from the room.
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Noem was describing what she called the "burdensome leadership" of California's governor and the mayor of Los Angeles, when Padilla interrupted and attempted to ask a question before being pushed from the room. He could be heard yelling, "I'm Sen. Alex Padilla and I have questions for the secretary," as he was escorted out of the room.
Before the interruption, Noem was discussing increasing immigration operations in the area and claimed that Homeland Security agents were staying to "liberate the city socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country."
She was asked by a reporter about the incident, and clarified that she does not know the senator and that he did not request a meeting with her.
"When I leave here, I'll have a conversation with him and find out really what his concerns were," Noem said. "I think everyone in America would agree that wasn't appropriate."
“Senator Padilla is currently in Los Angeles exercising his duty to perform Congressional oversight of the federal government’s operations in Los Angeles and across California," Padilla's office said in a statement. "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.”
Padilla later spoke to reporters after he emerged from the federal building, adding that he had been asking Homeland Security for answers on their "increasingly extreme" immigration enforcement and received "little to no information."
"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," he said.
The secretary's visit comes almost a week after demonstrations in LA turned into violent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement officers. The attacks led to President Trump deploying National Guard and U.S. Marine troops to the area, which local leaders have criticized as the reason for the escalation.
Noem has supported Mr. Trump's decision to federalize troops, saying they are meant to help "keep peace" and "law and order." She has also said that anyone involved in harming law enforcement officers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
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