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Opinion

Time to Wake UP!

By June 24, 2025No Comments

THE MOST SERIOUS QUESTION WE CAN ASK IS:  If ICE can handcuff a US Senator for simply asking a question, can any of us be safe when we want to speak up?

“WASHINGTON — Sen. Alex Padilla on Tuesday encouraged Americans to peacefully protest against President Donald Trump’s administration and said it’s “it’s time to wake up” in his first extended remarks in the Senate since he was forcibly removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference in Los Angeles last week as he tried to speak up about immigration raids .

“In emotional remarks on Tuesday, Padilla, a California Democrat, recounted the altercation, in which security forced him out of the room and onto the ground after he tried to ask Noem a question. Padilla said that even though he was accompanied by a National Guardsman and an FBI agent, “I was pushed and pulled, struggled to maintain my balance,” and ended up flat on his chest on the floor.

“I was handcuffed and marched down a hallway repeatedly asking, ‘Why I am being detained?’” Padilla said as several of his colleagues from both major political parties sat in their chairs and listened. “Not once did they tell me why.”

Read the full story:  Mary Clare Jalonick and Michael R. Blood | AP, The Washington Post: Padilla says in Senate ‘it’s time to wake up’ after forced removal from Noem’s event