WATCH: One Year After DHS Incident, Padilla Says Oversight Matters More Than Ever

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, took to the Senate floor to mark the one-year anniversary of being tackled and forcibly removed by federal agents while attempting to conduct congressional oversight at a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press conference in Los Angeles. In his remarks, Padilla warned that the same abuses of power that led to that incident continue today and renewed his calls for accountability.

On June 12, 2025, Padilla was in a Los Angeles federal building conducting congressional oversight of federal operations amid the Trump Administration's unjustified deployment of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, National Guard troops, and active-duty U.S. Marines across Los Angeles. He was scheduled to receive a briefing from General Gregory Guillot when then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem held a press conference in the same building. When Noem shared that the mission of the DHS operation was to "liberate" Los Angeles, Padilla stepped forward to ask Noem a question and was immediately tackled by federal agents, removed from the room, and forced to the ground.

"At that moment, I was compelled to speak up," said Senator Padilla. "Because that's not enforcing the law, that's an abuse of the United States military and federal law enforcement. A reflection of the desires of a wannabe dictator, and as you've seen the video before, I couldn't even get a question out, they did their best to try to silence me."

Padilla argued that the concerns he raised before his forcible removal have only intensified over the past year, pointing to new barriers to legal immigration, attacks on DACA recipients, and reports of inhumane conditions in detention facilities. He also highlighted the public outcry that followed ICE and CBP's escalation across the country, including protests outside detention centers and growing calls for greater oversight and accountability.

"They are also trying to shut down legal immigration altogether. Let me repeat that: they are trying to shut down legal immigration. By making it harder to seek asylum or even apply for a green card when you're eligible," continued Senator Padilla. "They're increasingly targeting DACA recipients, with over 260 that have been swept up this last year, and at least 86 of them deported from the only home they've ever known. Even worse again, adding to the cruelty, this Administration is also running out the clock on renewing their DACA protections to the point where the protections expire and they become not just unemployable, but far more susceptible to deportation. But nothing exemplifies this Administration's ongoing cruelty more than the conditions at detention centers like the Adelanto ICE processing center in my home state of California, the Dilley Detention center in Texas filled with children, and of course, Delaney Hall in New Jersey."

One year later, the incident remains a stark reminder of why congressional oversight and accountability are essential. Padilla reaffirmed his commitment to fighting for immigrant communities facing family separation, detention abuses, and threats to due process.

"One year ago, tomorrow, I was handcuffed for trying to ask a question," concluded Senator Padilla. "I got back up, and I spoke out, and I've continued to speak out. Not because I'm particularly brave, not because I'm particularly determined, but because the people expect and deserve answers. And they deserve leaders who, like them, refuse to be intimidated into silence."

Over the past year, Padilla has continued to press for accountability over the Administration's immigration enforcement tactics while advancing reforms to safeguard against government overreach. Last year, in response to Trump's unlawful DHS takeover, Padilla and Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced the Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement (VISIBLE) Act to require immigration enforcement officers to display clearly visible identification during public-facing enforcement actions. Padilla also introduced the Accountability for Federal Law Enforcement Act to allow individuals - regardless of citizenship status - the right to sue federal law enforcement officers and agencies in civil court for violations of their civil and constitutional rights. Padilla also introduced the Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929 amid the Administration's indiscriminate immigration enforcement across the country. This bill would offer a forward-looking, strategic update to the outdated immigration system to counter the Administration's demonization of undocumented immigrant communities.

Video of Padilla's floor speech is available here.

Transcript of Padilla's remarks is available below:

Mr. President, one year ago tomorrow, you may recall that I was in the federal building in West Los Angeles on business awaiting a scheduled briefing when I was physically forced out of a press conference, forced to the ground and handcuffed.

Not because I had broken any laws, mind you, but for the simple fact that I tried to ask a question of then-Homeland Security Secretary Noem. I was in that building. I was in that office in my capacity as a United States Senator for a scheduled briefing with the Four Star General in charge of Northern Command. Because I was seeking answers, I had been seeking answers not just for days, but for weeks and months of what became an unprecedented, unlawful, cruel immigration enforcement campaign that Donald Trump unleashed on Los Angeles.

You remember the visuals, masked ICE agents not identifying themselves, CBP officers also, armed as if they were heading into war indiscriminately stopping people, sweeping up immigrants, undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants, even some United States citizens.

But they didn't care because they were going after anyone who looked like an immigrant. Knocking down doors to homes without signed judicial warrants, breaking windows of cars and dragging people out of their vehicles, raiding work sites, parking lots of home improvement stores, even public parks where kids and families were playing.

This was all happening in a matter of days in Los Angeles, and it seemed like the Administration just was doing one thing after another to escalate tensions. The president not only federalized and deployed National Guard troops into Los Angeles to assist with this "mission." At one-point, active-duty Marines were sent into Los Angeles, not for public safety reasons, because this was done against the wishes of the governor, against the wishes of the mayor, against the wishes of the police chief and the sheriff.

So, yes, I wanted answers. Answers that weren't coming from the Department of Homeland Security here in the Senate during formal committee hearings. Answers that weren't coming in response to formal inquiries that we've made as senators or letters that had been submitted by myself and several of my colleagues. And so instead, as I was in the federal building awaiting a briefing, and I'm told that my briefing is delayed because the general is in a press conference with the Secretary of Homeland Security. I thought, well, let me try to go in and listen, maybe I'll hear some of the information that I've been trying so hard to get, and so I was escorted by a National Guard member and an FBI agent to the press conference where I stood to the side quietly, just listen. And when I heard, not for the first time, and not even for the first time that day, then Secretary Noem shared with the public that the mission of this operation was to quote "liberate" Los Angeles from its duly elected leaders. At that moment, I was compelled to speak up, because that's not enforcing the law. That's an abuse of the United States military and federal law enforcement. A reflection of the desires of a wannabe dictator, and as you've seen the video before, I couldn't even get a question out, they did their best to try to silence me.

They were sending a message because it wasn't just about me. They were trying to make it clear to anybody in Los Angeles, anybody throughout California, anybody throughout the country of what can happen if you dare disagree with this Administration. Because they don't like being questioned. That's for sure. They think they're above the law. They think that the rule of law does not apply to them. The good news is that's not what the American people believe. As one point of evidence, two days after that Homeland Security press conference experience, it was the first of the No King days that we've seen in the United States this last year, millions of people taken to the streets in their communities, cities across the country to declare "no kings." Instead of being scared into silence, they did not feel intimidated. They stepped up and they spoke out, and the American people have continued to speak out for our rights ever since.

Across the country, Americans have been looking out for their friends, for their neighbors, for their coworkers and their communities. They have been documenting a lot of the abuses that they have seen in an effort to hold not just federal agents, but the federal government accountable. Speaking up for our rights, organizing, protesting, and not just in locations where raids and apprehensions and arrests have been taking place. We now see mobilizations around detention facilities, where we've heard reports of brutal, unsanitary, inhumane conditions.

Just a couple of weeks ago, my colleague from New Jersey, Senator Kim, was out there with protesters and again was a victim of cruelty, unnecessary physical abuse against a member of the Senate. No American should have had to experience that, but what we've also seen at the time, again, it's not just the mobilization of the American people, the voice of the American people, we've seen the impact on the president's approval ratings, and on his polling.

This Administration, I granted, by the numbers the president enjoyed strong approval ratings when it came to immigration, generally speaking. Flash forward to today, poll after poll shows that he has had historically low approval ratings, both overall but especially when it comes to the cruelty of his immigration agenda. And it turns out that when Americans witness the president's policies, not as he campaigned on, right? Remember, he talked about going after the worst of the worst. What we've seen in practice is anything but.

So, what we've seen, the reality of what Donald Trump is doing, Americans don't approve. They don't approve of troops deployed into American cities. They don't approve of federal agents making indiscriminate stops, arrests, detentions, or even deportations. They don't approve of families being torn apart, of people being assaulted or pepper sprayed and arrested for exercising their First Amendment rights. They don't approve of indiscriminate profiling of people based on their skin color. It's shameful that they're now termed the Kavanaugh stops. A Supreme Court justice sanctioning stops based on appearance, accent, occupation. You don't enforce the law by violating the law, that's racial profiling, plain and simple.

And, of course the American people have been horrified when they see United States citizens, including Alex Pretti and Renee Good, shot and killed in broad daylight by federal agents for exercising their First Amendment rights. This country has recoiled from this cruelty, because this is not who we are as a country. We're better than this, and sadly, we know this Administration pays close attention to their polling numbers, so they know public opinion has turned. Instead of rectifying, instead of being smarter on this, more responsible on this, they're simply just changing tactics, and what was once happening in plain sight is now intentionally being played out in areas that are a lot less visible, certainly not visible to the public. We've learned recently, for instance, that immigration courts are scheduling massive "mega-master hearings," is what they're calling them.

Instead of a judge processing maybe 15 cases at a time, that's a significant workload. Now they're hearing 100 or more. Oh, and by the way, there's also a lot fewer judges hearing these cases, because the Administration has fired more than 100 judges. You combine fewer judges with less access to counsel by people who have a right to counsel. It comes down to the denial of true due process. That's their recipe for ramming through and ramping up deportations.

They are also trying to shut down legal immigration altogether. Let me repeat that: they are trying to shut down legal immigration. By making it harder to seek asylum or even apply for a green card when you're eligible. They're increasingly targeting DACA recipients, with over 260 that have been swept up this last year, and at least 86 of them deported from the only home they've ever known. Even worse again, adding to the cruelty, this Administration is also running out the clock on renewing their DACA protections to the point where the protections expire and they become not just unemployable, but far more susceptible to deportation. But nothing exemplifies this Administration's ongoing cruelty more than the conditions at detention centers like the Adelanto ICE processing center in my home state of California, the Dilley Detention center in Texas filled with children, and of course, Delaney Hall in New Jersey, that's been in the news of late.

We're constantly hearing reports of how overcrowded and unsanitary these facilities are. We're hearing about detainees given food that's infested with mold or maggots, inadequate access to clean drinking water, and how many are being denied medical care, including critical medical care. The damage this Administration is doing is incalculable, but we do know that conditions in these facilities have contributed to the deaths of 51 detainees since the start of the second Trump Administration, 19 of them just in this year alone? Again, most of these people do not have a criminal record. I got to point that out, because again, for all the talk by the President Trump, by the White House, by DHS, by a lot of our Republican colleagues about going after the worst of the worst. If this Administration was only targeting the dangerous, violent criminals that they so often talk about, there would be no debate, there would be no discussion, because there would be no disagreement.

But the fact of the matter is, the vast majority of the people that have been detained, that have been arrested, that have been deported, do not have violent criminal convictions. And to the cruelty of the kicking down the door of your home, the terror of the broken car window and being dragged out, the pain of somebody being detained for days or weeks or months with challenging contact with family or lawyers, the conditions in these detention facilities. The vast majority of people that have been subject to this are not dangerous, violent criminals. Many may be undocumented, but they're otherwise hardworking tax paying family raising contributors to communities and our economy.

Last year was the deadliest year for people in ICE detention, and this year we're on track to suppress even that record. And now on top of that, we learned just yesterday that this Administration has detained 500 babies and toddlers who are now in ICE custody. That's right, 500 babies and toddlers locked up in these ICE facilities. Are they the worst of the worst? No, are they the transnational gang leaders? Really? Babies and toddlers?

All immigrants are human beings and deserve to be treated like it. They deserve better than what this Administration is doing, which is why it's important. for Americans to keep speaking out exposing these abuses, because exposing these abuses is part of our responsibility. Stopping them is the other responsibility. The American people deserve a better vision and a better plan for immigration than what this Administration is delivering. The American people deserve and expect a plan that is rooted not in fear but one that is rooted both in security and dignity, a plan that doesn't strive to just be tough on immigration for the sake of being tough, but one that is smarter on immigration policy and how we administer it.

We can secure our borders. Let's do it in a way that's secure and orderly and humane, while ensuring pathways to seek safety for those who need it. That's been the tradition of our country. We can and must modernize our legal immigration system to keep up with global competition, while protecting American workers. Those two objectives are not mutually exclusive. They do go hand in hand. We must ensure the law affords due process and keeps families together. We must provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, for farm workers, and other long-term residents of the United States.

Now I'm not naive enough to suggest that all this is easily done, but we have to keep trying, because the status quo confronting us today is clearly not working. Before we can even begin the work of modernizing our immigration system, we have to confront the abuses that are happening right before us. Again, it's not one or the other. We have to strive to do both. The need for stronger oversight of ICE and CBP, which have been allowed to get away with far too much for too long, is undeniable. The need to ensure independent scrutiny of detention centers and these awful conditions is undeniable, but again, DHS is putting up roadblocks, even for members of Congress, to conduct our oversight responsibility in these federal facilities.

We need stronger protections for the civil liberties and constitutional rights that define us as Americans, beginning with the First Amendment. As should the American people. Vote Democrats into the majority next election, Democrats will wield every tool in our power to achieve these reforms. But the most important thing that we can do as Americans, in the meantime, is to never stop speaking up in the face of cruelty and injustice.

Again, one year ago, tomorrow, I was handcuffed for trying to ask a question. Not a day goes by that I don't see somebody here in Washington and California, or many places in between, that don't come up to me. Complete strangers acknowledging what happened, and how it hurt them. I thank them for sharing. I thank them for caring, and I remind them, don't just remember that I was put to the ground and handcuffed. Remember what happened immediately after I got back up, and I spoke out, and I've continued to speak out. Not because I'm particularly brave, not because I'm particularly determined, but because the people expect and deserve answers. And they deserve leaders who like them, refuse to be intimidated into silence. A lot of the television cameras have moved on from what's happening in communities.

The headlines have faded because there's no shortage of challenges that this country is confronting from the threats of wars abroad, and an unauthorized war the president has dragged us into, economic pain. Right, we talked a lot about the cost of groceries, the cost of housing, the cost of health care, the cost of utilities that working families are struggling with, but the need for oversight on the Department of Homeland Security and ICE and CBP, especially, is absolutely there.

The need for accountability remains. The need to defend due process and civil liberties and basic human dignity has not faded away. One year ago, this Administration tried to send a message again, not just to me, to the country, and for the past year I'm so proud that the American people have been sending a message right back to the President.

As long as I have the privilege of serving in this chamber, I will continue to do the same. I'll continue standing by the American people and to keep asking questions and demanding answers. We have a lot of work to do. Let's keep going. Thank you, Mr. President.

###