Alex Padilla Addresses Forcible Removal From Kristi Noem's Press Briefing

In a video released to social media, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) addressed his forcible removal from DHS Sec. Kristi Noem's press briefing.

Transcript

00:00Hi everyone this is Senator Alex Padilla. I want to begin this video by just saying

00:05thank you to everybody who's reached out to me, to Angela, to my office expressing

00:12your support because of what's happened today. It means the world to me. I

00:17certainly have heard your support and I feel your support so thank you. For those

00:21who may not be aware I was in the federal building in Los Angeles today

00:25for a scheduled briefing with representatives of Northern Command

00:30because of what's been happening in Los Angeles and Donald Trump's

00:35unacceptable escalation of tension here in Los Angeles as the Department of Homeland

00:42Security has continued to increase the cruelty and the extremism of their

00:47immigration enforcement operations. While I was waiting for the briefing I learned

00:53that just down the hall from where I was Secretary Noem from the Department of

00:58Homeland Security was having a press conference. Now Secretary Noem and the

01:02Department we have been calling on and we have been sending letters to since the

01:07beginning of the year requesting more information as to what and why they are

01:11doing with little to no response and so I thought let me go over there and listen in

01:17on the press conference. Maybe they're sharing some important information and

01:22while I did that, escorted over there by a national guardsman and an FBI agent, I just

01:29heard nothing but increasing political rhetoric. Not once but on multiple

01:35occasions they're claiming that well they're there in full force in Los Angeles

01:40because they need to rescue the people of Los Angeles from the governor and from the

01:46mayor and I just couldn't accept the rhetoric anymore so I had the audacity to

01:52try to ask a question. I introduced myself. I'm Senator Alex Balia and I have a

01:58question and it took all of maybe a second for multiple agents to forcibly

02:05remove me from the room, to pin me on the ground and handcuff me. Now I'm okay for

02:14people who are wondering how I'm doing. I'm okay. But the big lesson here is if

02:19they can do that to me, if they're willing to do that to me, a United States

02:22Senator with a question, doing my job on behalf of the people of California and our

02:28country, what are they doing to a lot of the folks that are out there when the

02:34cameras are not on? Not the dangerous violent criminals that they say they're

02:38targeting. I have no issue with that. But I'm talking about all the otherwise law

02:43abiding undocumented immigrants who are so key to our economy and so valued in our

02:49communities. I think of the farm workers out in Oxnard that a couple of days

02:54ago were subjects of the raids. I think of the people that car washes, the day

02:59laborers trying to earn a living to help provide for their families. I think of

03:04cooks and other restaurant workers like my dad for 40 years. That's how he put food

03:08on the table. But now they're being traumatized and terrorized because of

03:13the tactics of the Department of Homeland Security under the Trump

03:17administration. So we're going to continue our job of oversight and to hold Donald

03:24Trump accountable because what we've seen here cannot be normalized. It is not

03:29normal and we shouldn't act normal. For folks who are inspired to continue to

03:35speak up, to demonstrate, to march, to protest, please peacefully protest because

03:41you don't want to give Donald Trump what he wants. He wants us to be quiet. He wants

03:44us to look away and we're not going to let him.