In the News

Democrats expressed outrage after Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California was forcibly removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's news conference on Thursday in Los Angeles, taken to the ground and handcuffed by law enforcement officers.

Noem was speaking to the media about the federal response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the area when Padilla entered the room and approached Noem's podium. As he approached, police officers in the room grabbed the senator, rushed him out of the room into a hallway, forced him to the ground and handcuffed him.

Video shows Padilla, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, identifying himself and saying he wanted to ask a question as law enforcement forced him out of the room.

Padilla was later seen without handcuffs speaking to Noem in a conference room. Noem said later that the two spoke for 10 to 15 minutes and exchanged phone numbers. Noem said she didn't expect him to be charged.

California Rep. Jimmy Gomez called for Noem to testify before Congress.

"A senior senator who was shouting at the top of his lungs, 'I am Senator Alex Padilla,'" Gomez said. "And what we want to know -- we're going to ask for and demand that Kristi Noem come before Congress and testify about what occurred today."