Editorial: What happened to Senator Padilla is not normal. You should be enraged

What took place Thursday morning during a news conference presided over by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem should alarm everyone.

You should be enraged and calling this for what it is: a public unmasking of a fascist agenda that is taking hold of the U.S.

Since January 2025, under Trump’s agenda, everyday citizens have experienced an increasing deprivation of their rights — especially trans youth, immigrants and people of color. They know they aren’t safe.

But what happened to California Sen. Alex Padilla, who was violently forced out of that L.A. briefing room in his attempt to question Noem on the ongoing raids terrorizing Latino and immigrant communities, epitomizes an executive branch overthrowing the balance of power shared with the legislative and judicial branches that for centuries has been the rule of law.

This behavior is not normal. It is an act of reprisal, punishment and blatant racism against a Latino leader — a child of Mexican immigrants chosen by the people of California to represent them — for daring to question a member of Trump’s cabinet.

It’s equivalent to how authoritarian and fascist governments operate, silencing individuals, forcibly removing them from briefing rooms and violently pinning them on the floor for daring to dissent.

In a statement issued after the incident, Padilla said, “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” in Los Angeles, California and across the nation, he said, adding that he would work to hold this administration accountable for the incident.

“We have a Constitution,” Noem said in her remarks to the press this morning. She used that line to defend the actions of federal agents, U.S. combat troops and state and local officers in their attempt to quell what is now day seven of the growing anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.

But she could use that same excuse to defend what happened this morning, because we’re no stranger to an administration that has nitpicked the U.S. Constitution in order to carry out an extremist agenda. 

Noem, in her leadership of the country’s security interests, is actively choosing to disregard one of the most coveted rights in the Constitution that should set the U.S. apart from many other nations: the right to due process protected under the Fourteenth Amendment — discriminately carrying out one of the most heinous crusades against Latino and immigrant communities in the United States.

In a statement issued after the conference, Noem said she had no idea who Padilla was and doubled down on a DHS statement that insisted Padilla was removed because he failed to identify himself (he did) and lunged at Noem.

Video of the incident shows Padilla approaching the front of the room and barely able to get a word in before he was forcefully shoved back by at least five plain-clothed individuals. Noem made no note of this as he was removed, paused for a brief moment and then continued to give an update on ICE operations in Los Angeles.

But it isn’t the manhandling of one man that should have us perturbed — because many members of the Senate and Congress are calling for an investigation into those who “assaulted the senator.” An investigation should be carried out. But will that be enough?

No, this is about the very real chance of it happening to the 45 U.S. senators and the 212 U.S. congressional members and any other elected official, Democratic or not, who have opposed Trump’s agenda from the beginning.

If a U.S. senator can be silenced in a country that waves the flag of democracy proudly while running swiftly down the path of authoritarianism under a second Trump administration, then the very possible dismantling of the balance of power that holds our democracy together becomes not a question of if, but when.

The CALÓ News Editorial Board publishes separately from the newsroom.