The clash over immigration has crossed the threshold of institutional crisis. In the past few hours, a sensational episode has shaken California and the rest of the United States: Senator Alex Padilla, one of the pillars of the Democratic Party in the state, was forcibly dragged away by federal agents from a press conference featuring Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in Los Angeles. An independent investigation has been requested by the Senate.
URGENT BREAKING: Democrat US Senator Alex Padilla was just thrown to the ground and arrested for trying to speak at a DHS Press Conference by Secretary Kristi Noem.
This is Trump’s America. This is so incredibly pathetic.
I am so sad for the state of this country. pic.twitter.com/yI9fKdoYoW
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) June 12, 2025
The video, which has already gone viral, shows Padilla attempting to ask Noem questions before being blocked and pushed out by security men. “I am Senator Alex Padilla! I have questions for the secretary!” He can be seen shouting as he is dragged past two swinging doors. “Hands off!” He tells officers the moment he tries to resist.
The image is shocking: a U.S. senator treated as an intruder, forcibly removed for demanding accountability for the military operations going on in the streets of his city. Noem’s words, spoken soon after, sound like a lesson in etiquette addressed to those on the other side of the stick of power: “It is not appropriate. A leader must seek civil dialogue.” But her words come at a time when in Los Angeles, under her Department’s jurisdiction, hundreds of immigrants are being rounded up and protests suppressed with the intervention of the National Guard and Marines.
Padilla, the first Latino senator in California’s history, is not just anyone, he is one of the loudest voices against Trump’s immigration policy. His physical removal from a public place, live on national television, is an extremely harsh signal. It is a warning that in this new authoritarian phase, no one is too high up to not be silenced.
The attack on Padilla follows just days after another disturbing episode: the indictment of New Jersey Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, accused by a federal grand jury of obstructing the arrest of Newark’s mayor during an inspection visit to an immigration detention center.
According to the indictment, McIver allegedly physically interfered with federal agents to prevent Mayor Ras Baraka from being hauled away. The events date back to May 9, but the indictment came only now, signed by New Jersey’s new federal prosecutor, Alina Habba, who has also worked previously as Donald Trump’s personal attorney. She is facing three obstruction charges, and a sentence of up to ten years in prison if convicted.
“This is a political trial, a vendetta in a federal uniform,” said McIver, pleading not guilty. “What has happened shows that the central power no longer tolerates opposition. But I will not back down.”
