World

US senator forcibly removed from Trump official’s press conference

AFP
Friday, Jun 13, 2025

LOS ANGELES, United States: A US senator from California was forcibly removed after interrupting a news conference being held by the US homeland security chief on Thursday.

“I´m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” he said as two men pushed and shoved him from the room where Kristi Noem was speaking about controversial immigration arrests that have rocked America´s second-biggest city.

Footage of the incident showed security agents forcing the senator to the floor and handcuffing him.

Padilla, one of two Democratic senators representing California in the upper chamber of Congress, can be heard trying to ask Noem about the targeting of immigrants.

Response to the incident was rapid. California Governor Gavin Newsom said Padilla “is one of the most decent people I know.” “This is outrageous, dictatorial and shameful. Trump and his shock troops are out of control. This must end now,” he wrote on social media. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the episode “absolutely abhorrent and outrageous.” “He is a sitting United States Senator. This administration´s violent attacks on our city must end.”