![\"Sen.](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/still-21700281-2664689-0000000037-still.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla says he attended Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem\u2019s news conference today to hold the Trump administration accountable for what he says is a lack of transparency surrounding its immigration crackdown.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe have questions,\u201d Padilla told CNN\u2019s Erin Burnett this evening, speaking hours after he was forcibly removed from the news conference after interjecting while Noem was speaking. \u201cThis is an administration that has been anything but transparent and accountable with \u2014 to the members of the Senate, to the Congress in general.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Padilla said his removal from the room, after which he was taken to the ground by law enforcement and handcuffed, should serve as a warning of what the administration could be doing to others throughout the country.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf this can happen to me, a United States senator representing the state of California \u2026 then imagine what they can do,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cImagine what they are doing to people in communities, not just throughout Los Angeles, but throughout the country.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Response to Noem\u2019s comments: <\/strong>The California Democrat said he was escorted into the news conference by a National Guard member and FBI agent, rejecting Noem\u2019s characterization that he \u201cburst into the room\u201d and \u201clunged\u201d at her<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cLies, lies, lies,\u201d Padilla said, after watching a clip of Noem making the comments on Fox News.\n <\/p>\n \n The senator said he was standing in the back of the room listening to Noem when \u201cthe rhetoric got to be too much,\u201d specifically, he said, the secretary\u2019s comment that the administration was in LA to \u201cliberate\u201d the city<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Padilla said he did not resist after law enforcement took him out of the room, told him to get on his knees and pushed him down, and that he asked repeatedly why he was being detained but did not receive an answer.\n <\/p>\n