‘Imagine What They’re Doing to Farm Workers!’ Senator Gets Emotional as He Recounts Being Manhandled By Federal Agents at Presser

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) insisted that he was presence was purely peaceful when he was forcibly removed from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference.

Earlier that afternoon, Padilla was in attendance at Noem’s presser in Los Angeles. During the conference, Padilla suddenly spoke up and said he had questions for the Homeland Security secretary. As soon as he spoke up, however, he was surrounded by several federal agents who forcibly removed him from the room. He was then taken to the ground and even put in handcuffs.

In the aftermath of the incident, DHS accused Padilla of rushing the podium and even lunging toward Noem. DHS also claimed Padilla didn’t identify himself — which was clearly disproven in videos of the ordeal.

Not long after the incident took place, Padilla read a statement to the press:

I’m here in Los Angeles today. And I was here in the federal building — in the conference room, awaiting a scheduled briefing from federal officials — as part of my responsibility as a senator to provide oversight and accountability. While I was waiting for the briefing with [U.S. Air Force General Gregory Guillot], I learned that Secretary Noem was having a press conference a couple of doors down the hall.

Since the beginning of the year — but especially over the course of recent weeks — I, several of my colleagues, have been asking the Department of Homeland Security for more information and more answers on their increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions; and we’ve gotten little to no information in response to our inquiries. And so, I came to the press conference to hear what she had to say, to see if I could learn any new additional information. And at one point, I had a question. And let me emphasize, just as we’ve emphasized the right for people to peacefully protest and to stand up for their First Amendment rights, for our fundamental rights. I was there peacefully. At one point I had a question, and so I began to ask a question. I was almost immediately forcibly removed from the room, I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed.

Padilla clarified that he wasn’t arrested or detained. Then, he became emotional when he asked listeners to consider the treatment undocumented immigrants have faced.

“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,” Padilla said, “you can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country. We will hold this administration accountable, and we’ll have more to say. We’ll have more to say in the coming days.”

Watch above via CNN