ICE protests live updates: Sen. Alex Padilla forcibly removed from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's press conference

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21 hours ago

A U.S. senator was forcibly removed from a Homeland Security press conference in Los Angeles on Thursday as protests against President Trump's immigration enforcement raids continue to grow.
Video shows Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, identifying himself and saying he has "questions for" Secretary Kristi Noem. He was grabbed by multiple men who pulled him from the room and into the hallway, where further video shows him being handcuffed while on the floor.
Padilla's office said in a statement that the senator "tried to ask the Secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed. He is not currently detained, and we are working to get additional information."
Homeland Security said Padilla didn't identify himself and wasn't wearing a Senate security pin. "Mr. Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers' repeated commands," the agency wrote on X. "@SecretService thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately."
Protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been expanding across the country, and have led to hundreds of arrests.
The latest tension was sparked last Friday when immigration officers raided Los Angeles businesses and arrested more than 40 immigrants. In the days since, the Trump administration has sent 700 active duty Marines to the city and has activated more than 4,000 National Guard members despite local officials saying the demonstrations have been mostly peaceful and limited to several blocks in downtown L.A., where a curfew has been imposed.
Follow the live blog below for the latest updates.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that "nobody knew" the identify of U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla from California, when he "lunged toward the podium" during her Wednesday press conference in Los Angeles.
"We were conducting a press conference to update everyone on the enforcement actions that are ongoing to bring peace in the city of Los Angeles, and this man burst into the room, started lunging towards the podium, interrupting me and elevating his voice, and was stopped, did not identify himself, and was removed from the room,' Noem told Fox News in an interview.
Padilla can be heard saying in a video of the encounter, 'I'm Sen. Alex Padilla and I have questions for the Secretary." But Noem said his attempts to identify himself were too late.
Sen. Alex Padilla recounted what happened Wednesday afternoon, his voice shaky, after being forcibly removed from a press conference led by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem:
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. ... I learned that Secretary Noem was having a press conference a couple door down the hall. Since the beginning of the year, but especially over the course of recent weeks, I [and] 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.
I was there peacefully. ... 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.
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. We will have more to say in the coming days.
The office of Sen. Alex Padilla released a statement after the California Democrat was forcibly removed from a press conference led by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
"He tried to ask the Secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed," the statement read in part. "He is not currently detained, and we are working to get additional information."
Video shared with reporters by Padilla's office shows the senator being cuffed on the ground in the hallway.
Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat who represents California, was forcibly removed from a news conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at the Los Angeles FBI headquarters on Thursday. In videos shared from the press conference, Padilla yelled out that he had "questions for the secretary" but was escorted out by security.
Noem, whose department oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that Padilla had not requested a meeting with her and said, 'I think everybody in America would agree that that was inappropriate."
The League of United Latin American Citizens, a civil rights organization, issued a national advisory to its members and allies amid ongoing protests, CNN reported.
'LULAC stands for lawful, nonviolent protest,' said Roman Palomares, the organization's national president and chairman. 'Anyone joining a demonstration must understand that an act even perceived as assaulting National Guard soldiers or federal agents is a federal crime that can carry serious prison sentences. We should avoid reckless behavior that overshadows our just cause or endangers our people,' he added.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has deployed over 5,000 Texas National Guard troops across the state, in addition to more than 2,000 state police officers, to help local law enforcement manage anti-ICE protests, he said Thursday in a post on X. "Anyone who damages property or harms a person will be arrested," he wrote. "Don't mess with Texas."
Mostly peaceful protests, captured in photos, have extended beyond Los Angeles this week into cities across the country, including Austin, Texas; San Francisco; Chicago; Seattle and New York.
Read more from Yahoo News: In photos: Protesters rally against immigration raids in solidarity with Los Angeles
More than 80 people were arrested from Wednesday into Thursday, mostly for failure to disperse, after a curfew took effect for a second night at 8 p.m. local time for parts of downtown Los Angeles.
The LAPD broke down the arrests in a news release:
Failure to disperse: 71 arrests
Curfew violations: 7 arrests
Assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer: 2 arrests
Resisting a police officer: 1 arrest
More than 30 people were arrested in downtown Spokane, Wash., on Wednesday as protesters clashed with police.
Demonstrators gathered outside the ICE office to protest the detainment of a Venezuelan asylum seeker. Later Wednesday, police and the Spokane sheriff's office arrived at the scene and declared the gathering unlawful, ordering people to disperse. Police eventually sent pepper balls — which explode into smoke and contain a pepper spray-like irritant — into the crowd. A state of emergency was later declared, and Mayor Lisa Brown issued a curfew from 9:30 p.m. through 5 a.m. local time.
An escalating feud between President Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the president's use of the military to assist in immigration raids in Los Angeles will head to the courtroom at 1:30 p.m. local time Thursday.
Newsom filed an emergency motion on Tuesday to block what he calls Trump's "illegal" deployment of 700 Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles without his consent.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer will hear Newsom's motion that would limit the activities of the troops who have been ordered to protect federal agents and assets in a small area of downtown Los Angeles where protests erupted last weekend.
Two people were arrested in New York City on Wednesday night in connection with anti-ICE protests, police said. That's down from Tuesday night's 86 arrests.
The scene in New York City was tense at times with demonstrators pushing and shoving police, but calmer compared to Tuesday. Demonstrations started at Foley Square, then moved down Broadway and up to the Manhattan Detention Center.
Protests over immigration enforcement emerged in the city on Tuesday in solidarity with Los Angeles. The NYPD is prepared for more protests, with another expected in Foley Square on Thursday.
Multiple people were arrested Wednesday night for violating a curfew that went into effect for a portion of downtown Los Angeles at 8 p.m. local time. There have been nearly 400 arrests and detentions related to the immigration enforcement protests since Saturday, according to Los Angeles police. The majority of them have been for failing to leave the area at the request of law enforcement.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced Wednesday that more than a dozen people have been charged with various crimes during protests in downtown L.A. over the past few days, releasing a partial list here. The charges range from assault on officers to burglary, vandalism and weapons possession.
'I fiercely support the right to peacefully protest and to free speech, but my office will also fiercely prosecute those who decide to cross a line into criminal conduct,' Hochman said. 'We will protect those who hurl insults; we will prosecute those who hurl bricks, cinderblocks or fireworks at officers. An attack on our officers or on public or private property is an attack on all of us, and such criminals will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.'
The overnight curfew that was imposed in downtown Los Angeles for a second straight night was lifted at 6 a.m. local time.
Police began making arrests shortly after the curfew took effect, at 8 p.m. on Wednesday night.
But by 8:45, the streets appeared calm, according to the Associated Press, with no signs of Marines or National Guard members.
Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar, two Democratic congressmen representing Texas, released a joint statement Wednesday condemning Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's decision to deploy the National Guard to respond to protests happening in San Antonio and Austin.
"By deploying the National Guard, Governor Abbott is trying to intimidate our community for rallying against President Trump's authoritarian policies," the statement reads. "We encourage everyone to gather peacefully against President Trump's unlawful, undemocratic actions."
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg reacted to Abbott's decision earlier Wednesday at a press conference, telling reporters that city leaders hadn't requested the troops, "nor did we get advance warning." Austin Mayor Kirk Watson confirmed that his city had been notified about the National Guard coming to help local law enforcement during planned protests on Saturday.
Nirenberg called the move an example of "the government's crude interpretations of immigration law and cruel approach to human rights."
"Peaceful protests are part of the fabric of our nation, but Texas will not tolerate the lawlessness we have seen in Los Angeles," Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott's press secretary, told NBC's Austin affiliate KXAN. "Anyone engaging in acts of violence or damaging property will be swiftly held accountable to the full extent of the law.'
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass suggested at a press conference Wednesday that the Trump administration's immigration raids could be "part of a national experiment to determine how far the federal government can go in reaching in and taking over power from a governor, power from a local jurisdiction" and the result has left "our city and our citizens, our residents, in fear."
Standing alongside more than 30 mayors from L.A. County, Bass emphasized that the group represents "cities in this region where immigrants are key and, in some cases, not the majority of the population."
'When you raid Home Depots and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart and when you run armored caravans through our streets, you're not trying to keep anyone safe; you're trying to cause fear and panic," she said.
Bass said she did not agree with the media's depiction of the protests happening in response to the immigration raids.
"The portrayal is that all of our cities are in chaos, rioting is happening everywhere," she said. "It is a lie."
Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, head of Task Force 51 overseeing the deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, answered questions from reporters Wednesday about their orders and the rules of engagement.
Sherman said their mission is to support federal agencies, in particular Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and to protect federal agencies, personnel, assets and facilities "in the locations where there have been demonstrations lately."
He said 2,000 National Guard troops are ready for missions on the ground in Los Angeles. An additional 2,000 troops are mobilizing.
Sherman said some of the National Guard troops have been assigned to strictly protect ICE agents as they do their federal job. The troops' weapons are not armed with ammunition, rather the bullets are "only on their person."
If confronted by protesters, Sherman said National Guard troops "do not conduct law enforcement operations, like arrests, or search and seizure. They are strictly used for the protection of federal personnel as they conduct their operations and to protect them to allow them to do their federal mission."
Sherman said troops are "allowed to temporarily detain and wait for law enforcement to come and arrest them. They do not do any arrests."
The 700 Marines who have been mobilized are currently undergoing civil disturbance training. Sherman couldn't give an exact date when they would be on the streets in portions of downtown L.A., but affirmed it would be "soon." When asked about the Marines's mission, Sherman said, "they will be doing the same operations."
While protests against the federal deportation raids in L.A. will likely continue throughout the week, nationwide demonstrations are planned for Saturday as part of the "No Kings Day of Defiance" movement.
Around 1,800 protests are planned in response to the large military parade that's scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C., on Saturday in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States Army. (While there are "No Kings" protests happening in all 50 states, there is intentionally no official protest scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C.)
The groups behind "No Kings" have been planning the events since early May, but the Los Angeles protests seem to have driven more people to join the "No Kings" movement. Ezra Levin, the co-executive director of Indivisible, one of the groups involved, spoke with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC on Monday about how President Trump's response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Los Angeles caused interest in the "No Kings" website to skyrocket.
'Of those 1,800 ['No Kings' protests], more than 100 of those have been added to the map since Trump announced that he was sending the National Guard to L.A.,' Maddow told viewers. 'If [Trump] was hoping to get people to not protest, it's backfiring.'
Read more from Yahoo News: Hundreds of 'No Kings' protests planned nationwide Saturday in response to Trump's military parade
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass first imposed a curfew for a small portion of downtown L.A. on Tuesday in order to prevent more violent clashes between protesters and authorities.
The curfew began at 8 p.m. local time Tuesday and ended at 6 a.m. Wednesday. Bass said Wednesday that the curfews would likely continue in the coming days for as long as they are needed.
Under the curfew, anyone within the designated area is subject to arrest, with limited exceptions including people who live or work there. The LAPD arrested more than 200 people in the area overnight Tuesday, and 17 were arrested for curfew violations. Most of the arrests were for failure to disperse.
Bass has emphasized that the curfew zone, and the protests more broadly, do not indicate that Los Angeles is consumed by violent chaos, as President Trump and his administration have claimed.
"The city of Los Angeles is a massive area, 502 square miles. The area of downtown where the curfew will take place is 1 square mile,' she said during a press conference on Tuesday. "It is extremely important to know that what is happening in this 1 square mile is not affecting the city."
Over 200 people were arrested from Tuesday into Wednesday, mostly for failure to disperse after a curfew took effect at 8 p.m. local time for parts of downtown Los Angeles where immigration enforcement protests have been centered.
The Los Angeles Police Department broke down the arrests in a post on X:
Failure to disperse: 203 arrests
Curfew violations: 17 arrests
Possession of firearm: 3 arrests
Assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer: 1 arrest
Discharging a laser at LAPD airship: 1 arrest
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt opened Wednesday's press briefing by condemning the immigration protests in Los Angeles.
"What we have seen transpire in Los Angeles, Calif., in recent days is shameful," Leavitt began. "Left-wing radicals waving foreign flags viciously attacked [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and Border Patrol agents, as well as Los Angeles police officers. ... All because the Trump administration was removing violent criminal illegal aliens from the city."
Leavitt claimed California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass have not responded properly to the protests, and are "shamefully" not living up to their obligations as elected officials.
"Mayor Bass and Gov. Newsom fanned the flames and demonized our brave ICE officers," she said. "In other words, the position of the Democrat Party is that the federal government is not allowed to enforce our laws into arrest and deport illegal alien criminals. They're attempting to use a violent mob as a weapon against their own constituents to prevent the enforcement of immigration law. This is deeply un-American and morally reprehensible."
Cover thumbnail photo via Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images