https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-12-2025
"At a press conference for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in Los
Angeles today, Noem’s security assaulted Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), dragged
him into the hallway, forced him to the floor, and handcuffed him as he tried
to ask the secretary a question.
Senator Padilla is the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary
subcommittee on immigration, citizenship, and border safety. That subcommittee
has “oversight of federal agencies with citizenship, asylum, refugee, and
immigration enforcement responsibilities.”
After the attack, Senator Padilla explained: “I'm here in Los Angeles today,
and I was here in the federal building in the conference room, awaiting a
scheduled briefing from federal officials as part of my responsibility as a
senator to provide oversight and accountability. While I was waiting for the
briefing…, I learned that Secretary Noem was having a press conference a couple
of doors down the hall. Since the beginning of the year, but especially…over
the course of recent weeks, I—several of my colleagues—have been asking the
Department of Homeland Security for more information and more answers on their
increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions. And we've gotten little
to no information in response to our inquiries.
“And so I came to the press conference to hear what she had to say, to see if I
could learn any new additional information…. At one point, I had a question.
And so I began to ask a question. I was almost immediately forcibly removed
from the room. I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed. I was not
arrested. I was not detained.
“I will say this. If this is how this administration responds to a senator with
a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a
senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farm
workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and
throughout California and throughout the country. We will hold this
administration accountable.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
