During remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) warned President Trump leading the United States down a "path towards fascism" after he was arrested during a DHS press briefing for questioning Secretary Noem about ICE raids.
00:00Mr. President, it's important for me for this body to know that over the last two weeks in Los Angeles, my hometown, that we've seen masked federal agents in tactical gear ordered into our communities.
00:22We've seen a disturbing pattern of increasingly extreme and cruel immigration enforcement operations targeting nonviolent people at places of worship, at schools, in courthouses, all to meet an arbitrary quota.
00:45Now we're seeing President Trump federalize National Guard troops and deploy them without the governor's consent.
00:57Active duty Marines now being deployed, escalating tensions in our city.
01:05And it's important to note all this without coordination with state and local law enforcement.
01:12And despite repeated requests for the justification for these extreme actions, and after months and months of little to no response from the administration on their aggressive and theatrical immigration raids,
01:28the Trump administration has done everything in their power but to provide transparency to the American people about their mission in Los Angeles.
01:39And so last week, I chose to go home to try to get answers from the administration as they are literally militarizing our city.
01:50And I want to share what I learned, I want to share what I heard, because it should shock the conscience of our country.
02:02Now, one of the first items on my schedule last Thursday was a meeting and a briefing with General Guillaume,
02:11the four-star general in charge of U.S. Northern Command.
02:14Many of you know him.
02:15The briefing was scheduled at the Federal Building in West Los Angeles, where they're overseeing these military operations.
02:25Now, colleagues, when the United States military is deployed domestically,
02:31when our troops are deployed against the wishes of the governor for the first time since 1965,
02:40against the wishes of the local mayor,
02:43and even against the wishes of local law enforcement,
02:47both the police chief and the sheriff,
02:50we are in unchartered territory.
02:53So in my effort to do my duty to conduct congressional oversight
03:01and to try to get answers from the Department of Defense that state and local officials were not receiving,
03:08I went to the Federal Building in West Los Angeles.
03:11I was met at the entrance by a National Guardsman and an FBI agent
03:21who escorted me through security screening and up to a conference room for my scheduled briefing.
03:29While waiting for my scheduled briefing with General Guillaume,
03:35I learned that Homeland Security Secretary Noem was holding a press conference literally just down the hall.
03:44And that press conference was causing my briefing to be delayed.
03:47The thought occurred to me that, well, maybe I could attend this press conference and listen in,
03:56just listen, in the hopes of hearing Secretary Noem provide some new information
04:03that could help us make sense of what was happening.
04:07I didn't just get up and go.
04:09I asked and was escorted by the National Guardsman and the FBI agent
04:16into the press conference.
04:19They opened the door for me.
04:22They accompanied me into the press briefing room.
04:26And they stood next to me as I stood there for a while, listening.
04:31And at one point,
04:34the United States Secretary of Homeland Security
04:40said that the purpose of federal law enforcement
04:43and the purpose of the United States military
04:47was to, quote,
04:49liberate Los Angeles
04:50from our governor and our mayor.
04:55To somehow liberate us
04:58from the very people
04:59that we democratically elected
05:02to lead our city
05:04and our state.
05:05colleagues, let that fundamentally un-American mission statement
