US senator Alex Padilla forcefully removed and handcuffed at Homeland Security press conference
A US senator has been forcefully removed from a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and handcuffed by officers as he tried to protest recent immigration raids.
Video shows Alex Padilla, a representative for California, standing by the front of the press pack as a Secret Service agent on Ms Noem's security detail grabs him by his jacket and shoves him from the room.
"I'm Senator Alex Padilla," he shouts in a halting voice.
"I have questions for the secretary."
Scuffling with officers outside the room, he can be heard yelling, "Hands off!"
As the person recording the incident follows the tussle around a corner, Senator Padilla is seen on his knees and then being pushed to the ground and handcuffed in a hallway, with several officers atop him.
The senator's aggressive removal from a cabinet secretary's news conference prompted immediate outrage from his Democratic colleagues.
Footage of the scuffle in Los Angeles ricocheted through the halls of congress, where stunned Democrats demanded an immediate investigation and characterised the episode as another in a line of mounting threats to democracy by President Donald Trump's administration.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said what he saw "sickened my stomach".
"We need immediate answers to what the hell went on," the New York senator said from the Senate floor.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said Senator Padilla "chose disrespectful political theatre" and Secret Service agents "thought he was an attacker".
The statement claimed Senator Padilla did not identify himself, but video shows he did as he was being pushed from the room.
"Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers' repeated commands," the statement said, adding "officers acted appropriately".
Emerging afterward, Senator Padilla said he was removed while demanding answers about the Trump administration's "increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions".
He said he and his colleagues had received little to no response to their questions in recent weeks, so he attended the briefing for more information.
"If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question … I can only imagine what they are doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day labourers throughout the Los Angeles community, and throughout California, and throughout the country," he said.
Ms Noem told Fox LA afterward that she had a "great" conversation with Senator Padilla after the scuffle, but called his approach "something that I don't think was appropriate at all".
The White House has accused the senator of grandstanding.
"Padilla didn't want answers; he wanted attention," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.
"It's telling that Democrats are more riled up about Padilla than they are about the violent riots and assaults on law enforcement in LA."
The fracas in Los Angeles came just days after Democratic Representative LaMonica McIver was indicted on federal charges alleging she assaulted and interfered with immigration officers outside a detention centre in New Jersey.
That incident occurred as Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested for trying to join a congressional oversight visit at the facility.
Democrats have framed the charges as intimidation efforts by the Trump administration.
It also follows days of rising tension between Trump and Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom over the federal military intervention in the state.
In a speech earlier this week, the Mr Newsom warned "democracy is under assault before our eyes".
Senator Padilla is the son of immigrants from Mexico and has been a harsh critic of Mr Trump and his mass deportations agenda.
In a social media post, he argued the president "isn't targeting criminals in his mass deportation agenda, he is terrorizing communities, breaking apart families and putting American citizens in harm's way".
In 2021, Senator Padilla became the state's first Latino senator when he was selected by Newsom to fill Kamala Harris' Senate seat after she was elected vice president.
At the time, he was the state's chief elections officer.
Democratic senators quickly gathered in the chamber to denouncing the treatment of their colleague — a well-liked and respected senator — and urged Americans to understand what was happening.
Senator Elizabeth Warren said Mr Trump was making the US "look more and more like a fascist state".
"Will any Republican senator speak up for our democracy?" she pleaded.
House Speaker Mike Johnson accused Mr Padilla of "charging" Ms Noem and suggested the behaviour "rises to the level of a censure".
"My view is it was wildly inappropriate," Mr Johnson told reporters outside the House chamber.
Democrats walking past shouted over him, "That's a lie!"
"A sitting member of Congress should not act like that," Mr Johnson said, loudly speaking over reporters' questions.
"It's beneath a member of Congress; it's beneath the US senator."
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