(Adnkronos) – Democratic Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed, in handcuffs, by federal agents from a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on the raids to arrest migrants underway in California.
“I’m Senator Alex Padilla and I have a question for the Secretary,” began the son of Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles, who graduated from MIT, interrupting the conference. At this point, federal agents intervened and began to jostle and push the senator, forcing him to his knees and handcuffing him, as shown in the video shot by a Fox News reporter.
In the video, Padilla is heard repeatedly saying that he is a senator, contradicting the account provided by Noem and other members of the Trump administration who said that the Democrat did not identify himself and that the agents mistook him for a threatening demonstrator. Dan Bongino, deputy chief of the FBI, wrote on social media that the agents “acted absolutely appropriately,” suggesting that Padilla resisted the agents.
For his part, Padilla stressed how the agents handcuffed him despite Corey Lewandowski, a great Trump ally now an advisor to Noem, continuing to shout to let him go. In the end, it was Lewandowski who convinced the agents to remove the handcuffs, and the senator had a 15-minute conversation with Noem.
“If this is how the administration responds to a senator’s question, you can imagine what they do to farmworkers, cooks, and daily workers throughout California and the country,” said the Democrat, the first Latino senator in the state where Hispanics are 40% of the population.
This is not the first time that federal agents have used repressive methods against Democratic officials: in recent weeks, the mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was arrested while trying to visit a migrant detention center in his city, while New Jersey Congresswoman LaMonica McIver was indicted on charges of obstructing public officials during the mayor’s arrest.
