Alex Padilla Speaks Out After Being Removed From Sec. Kristi Noem's Press Briefing

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Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) spoke with reporters on Thursday after he was removed from a press briefing held by Sec. Kristi Noem.

Transcript

00:00Since the beginning of the year, but especially over the course of recent weeks,

00:10I, several of my colleagues, have been asking the Department of Homeland Security

00:15for more information and more answers on their increasingly extreme immigration enforcement

00:22actions. And we've gotten little to no information in response to our inquiries.

00:32And so I came to the press conference to hear what she had to say to see if I could learn any new

00:38additional information. And at one point, I had a question. And let me emphasize,

00:45this emphasized the right for people to peacefully protest and to stand up for their First Amendment

00:53rights, for our fundamental rights. I was there peacefully. At one point, I had a question.

01:00And so I began to ask a question. I was almost immediately, forcibly removed from the room.

01:08I was forced to the ground. And I was handcuffed. I was not arrested. I was not detained.

01:20I will say this. If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question,

01:29if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question,

01:35you can only imagine what they're doing to farmers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles

01:47community and throughout California and throughout the country. We will hold this administration

01:57accountable.

01:58And we'll have more to say. We'll have more to say in the coming days. Let me say just briefly in Spanish as well.

02:08I'm the senator. I'm the senator Alex Padilla. And I was here because I took a meeting to receive more information

02:18from the representatives of the administration. Especially because from the beginning of the term

02:26of Donald Trump, and especially this last week, for what has happened here in the Los Angeles region,

02:33we've asked for more information about the policies, the policies, the strategies of the administration.

02:40And the responses have been minimized. I was here to receive more information when I realized that the secretary

02:53of the department is the two of the congressmen who might have come. So I went, you know,

03:01I didn't know, it's for the department of the federal government's government. I was in the

03:03state of the city. So I was there to hear a lot more information about the rural functions.

03:07I was in the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state. It is a kind of an

03:20Traté de hacer una pregunta, muy calmado, todo tranquilo, tuve una pregunta y casi inmediatamente

03:32los agentes me sacaron, me forzaron de la sala.

03:42Después me hicieron encargo, después completamente al piso me pusieron esposas, no me arrestaron,

03:55no me detenieron, pero una gran pregunta es esta, si esta es la reacción a un senador

04:05con una pregunta, imagínense lo que están haciendo con cocineros, hornaleros, campesinos

04:18y otros inmigrantes no violentos en la comunidad de Los Angeles, en otras áreas del estado de

04:25California y en el país.

04:27No voy a tomar preguntas en este momento, pero si quise explicar lo que ocurrió y tendremos

04:35más que decir en los días que viene.

04:38Just want to, just want to once again, just want to once again, for not just a community

04:45here in Los Angeles, but throughout the country, because there is a lot of concern, there is

04:51a lot of tension, there is a lot of anxiety, and a lot of people are beginning to make

04:55plans for what they may or may not do come this Saturday.

05:00I encourage everybody to please peacefully protest, just like I was calmly and peacefully

05:08listening in that press conference and preparing, attempting to ask a question.

05:15No violence, no vandalism, please continue peacefully protesting, and that's all I will

05:22have to say today.

05:23Thank you very much.

05:26I will be and the secretary said afterwards.

05:27Why don't you come in to do that, why don't you disrupt it?

05:28Please tell us what that would mean.

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