LOS ANGELES - Senator Alex Padilla is the son of Mexican immigrants. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, and he's a Democratic representing California. As a sign of the times we're living under the Trump administration, the U.S. Senator was shockingly manhandled and forcibly removed during a Department of Homeland Security news conference held by Secretary Kristi Noem at the Federal Building in West L.A.

Senator Padilla is a ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration. As a part of his oversight duties, he was merely attempting to ask a question about recent law enforcement activites at this meeting in Los Angeles.

“Sir! Sir! Hands off!” Padilla, shouted as federal agents pushed him out of the room. “I am Senator Alex Padilla. I have a question for the secretary.” Padilla, was emphatically attempting to ask questions about the display of mug shots behind Ms. Noem when agents began to restrain him. He was physically forced out of the room - as he was clearly heard stating he is a U.S. Senator. Once outside of the meeting space and in the hallway, he was ordered to his knees. While on his knees, then made to sprawl out on the floor with hands behind his back, he was then handcuffed.

Padilla later stated that he had been waiting for a separate briefing nearby when he saw Noem and her entourage. After being escorted into the room by a National Guard member and an FBI agent, he stood silently until Noem stated that agents were in L.A. “to liberate this city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership” of California Democrats. That’s when he spoke up.

Footage shows Padilla identifying himself and beginning to ask about immigrants without criminal records being detained. Before he could finish, agents surrounded and removed him. In response, Noem claimed Padilla “failed to identify himself” and had “lunged” toward the podium. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said he wasn’t wearing his Senate security pin and accused him of “disrespectful political theater.” The FBI also claimed Padilla resisted arrest and backed agents’ actions.

Padilla, however, insists he clearly identified himself both in the lobby and during the incident. He said the situation escalated until Corey Lewandowski, a Trump ally and adviser to Noem, ran down the hallway yelling, “Let him go!”

The incident quickly became a flashpoint in the ongoing partisan conflict over immigration and federal enforcement. Democrats decried the senator’s treatment as authoritarian overreach, especially following the recent arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and the indictment of Rep. LaMonica McIver—both Democrats—after visiting a new immigration detention facility.

Republicans countered by accusing Padilla of grandstanding. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise accused him of trying to “stir angst” against federal agents deployed to Los Angeles. Padilla later met briefly with Noem. He said he had feared arrest, having never previously been handcuffed. “If this is how the administration treats a senator,” he said emotionally at a later press conference, “imagine how they treat farm workers, cooks, and day laborers in L.A. and across the country.”

The son of Mexican immigrants—a cook and a housekeeper—Padilla was politicized by California’s anti-immigrant Proposition 187 in the 1990s, which influenced his desire to turn from engineering which he studied at MIT to public service, where he has held the positions in the Los Angeles City Council and California State Senate in addition to the United States Senate.

Though he and fellow California Senator Adam Schiff maintain low profiles in the Senate, the high-profile incident could boost Padilla’s visibility. He was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 to fill Kamala Harris’s seat.

Outrage erupted across Los Angeles. Mayor Karen Bass called the senator’s treatment “abhorrent and outrageous,” and Governor Newsom said it was “dictatorial and shameful,” blaming Trump and “his shock troops.”

Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski also expressed concern. Collins said it was “very disturbing,” while Murkowski added: “It’s not the America I know.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor, “I just saw something that sickened my stomach — the manhandling of a United States senator. We need immediate answers to what the hell went on."

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is attempting to justify the federal agents handcuffing of a California senator inside his own home state by suggesting that he “looked like an illegal,” according to his leading biographer who stated: “Trump saw these pictures and then has been on the phone saying to people, ‘Nobody’s ever heard of this guy,’” Michael Wolff, the bestselling author, said this week on The Daily Beast Podcast. “As though that’s an excuse. And then he’s gone on to say, ‘and he looks like an illegal.’”

Trump's exact words were: “Padilla is actually a relatively new senator from California. Nobody knows about this person. Therefore, it's perfectly understandable that the ICE agents would tackle him. And of course he looks like an illegal."