Press Releases

GOMEZ: “If it can happen to Alex, it can happen to any of those senators on the other side, or any member of Congress, or anybody.”

You can watch the press conference HERE.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representatives Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), Zoe Lofgren (CA-18), and members of the California congressional delegation held an emergency press conference on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to condemn the Trump administration’s forcible removal of U.S. Senator Alex Padilla during a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press conference.

Senator Padilla was thrown to the ground and handcuffed while attempting to ask Secretary Kristi Noem questions regarding DHS’s military-style deployments in LA and ongoing reports of human rights abuses at detention facilities. The senator identified himself repeatedly, yet was removed from a federal building where his own office is located.

You can read Rep. Gomez’s full remarks as delivered below:

“I think everyone is definitely shaken up—but extremely angry about what just occurred. Because we’ve seen this situation before. This administration — Donald Trump — is outside the bounds of the law, outside the bounds of the courts, outside the bounds of custom and practice. And he will not stop in just Los Angeles.

“He’s not gonna stop in California. He’s gonna go to every state in the union to show that he is not controlled by the Constitution. And if people think it’s only in California, they are mistaken.

“What we’ve seen is that this administration—with their ICE raids—is not going after criminals. I don’t know any MS-13 gang members that work at a car wash during the day, or at a day laborer site, or at a restaurant during the day. That’s who he said he would go after. But who is he going after?

“He’s going after a mom doing her yearly check-in—with her kids—and then deporting them to Texas and separating them. A little girl who’s getting cancer treatment—and the only place she can get it is here.

“People should be pissed off. Not just because of them—but because of what it means about our country, where we’re heading. And we’re heading down a dark, dark path. Something that, in my imagination, I never thought we’d reach. But this is where we are.

“And if they can do that to a member of Congress from New Jersey [and California’s] senior senator, who was shouting at the top of his lungs, ‘I am Senator Alex Padilla,’ and whose office is in that federal building—he had a right to be there—then they’re gonna make something up to justify, probably, an indictment of that senator.

“And what we want to know—what we’re going to demand—is that Kristi Noem come before Congress and testify about what occurred today.

“Because if it can happen to Alex, it can happen to any of those senators on the other side. It can happen to any member of Congress. It can happen to anybody.

“So I want to just stress: we’re not going to give up. We’re not going to be intimidated. We’re not going to be cowed. We’re going to keep fighting for our communities. And I know the Trump administration says using the word ‘fight’ is some kind of declaration. And it is a declaration.

“It’s a declaration that we’re not going to give up. That we’re going to stand up for one another. Because too much is at stake. And I want everybody to know—we’re calling on all Americans to stand up. Because when is it going to be enough?

“When somebody gets shot in the streets of Los Angeles? When a member gets shot?”