WATCH: Padilla Demands Accountability for Minneapolis Killings, Refuses to Support Funding for ICE and CBP

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, spoke on the Senate floor to hold the line against any additional funding for President Trump's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after the brutal killings of two American citizens in Minneapolis by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and agents. Padilla blasted the Administration's escalation of tensions in American cities, including Minneapolis, which led to the devastating, inexcusable deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.

Padilla pushed to rein in the Trump Administration's repeated abuses of power, calling out the Administration's militarization of Los Angeles as the test case for the ongoing chaos and cruelty they've unleashed in communities across the nation to carry out Trump's mass detention and deportation agenda. He condemned ICE and CBP's indiscriminate, violent raids, during which they have profiled and targeted people at places of worship, schools, and workplaces based on how they look and the language they speak.

As Trump, Stephen Miller, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem lie to the American public and refuse to take responsibility for these tragedies, Padilla demanded ICE and CBP officers and agents obey the law and stressed that they do not have absolute immunity. He also criticized the Administration for refusing to open an unbiased, independent investigation, instead allowing DHS to investigate itself.

Padilla underscored the sharp rise in incidents involving excessive force by federal agents - including at least 17 shootings - and deaths in ICE custody at private detention facilities. After 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025, the deadliest year since 2005, at least six individuals have already died in their custody this year. Padilla highlighted his oversight visit with Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) last week to the largest detention center in California, located in California City, to learn firsthand of the concerns surrounding the inhumane conditions detained individuals are facing at the private, for-profit facility, including a severe lack of medical and mental health care, legal counsel, and due process.

After Congress already passed billions in funding for DHS last year, tripling ICE's budget, Senator Padilla made clear that he will not vote to authorize any additional taxpayer funding for DHS until ICE and CBP stop ignoring the Constitution and federal law, allow real federal oversight, and implement major reforms to rein in these out-of-control agencies.

Key Excerpts:

• Colleagues, it was about seven months ago that I stood here on the floor to warn all of you and the American people that the Trump Administration at the time … was using Los Angeles as a test case - testing how far federal agents could go in this indiscriminate, increasingly violent and cruel mass detention and deportation agenda, how far they could go before exporting this model throughout the country. I never in my life have wanted to say more than I do today that I wish I was wrong.

• You've seen the videos. I've seen the videos. We've all seen the videos. How dare this Administration slander the names of the dead and tell the American people not to believe what we can all see so clearly with our own eyes. How dare this Administration act as if the laws passed by this body do not apply to them.

• It is time to say: enough. This is not just about immigrant families and immigrant communities now living in fear - this is about all of us. No one in this country - immigrant, citizen, veteran - should fear for their life for exercising their constitutional rights for standing up for their neighbors.

• This is not a political or policy disagreement about immigration. This is about decency. This is about humanity. And this is about the rule of law.

• Instead of asking questions and demanding accountability, our Republican colleagues here have applauded the Administration and chosen to give the Department of Homeland Security billions more dollars - and now they're suggesting that DHS needs even more. How much more must our communities and our country endure before our Republican colleagues join us in saying enough? How much more, colleagues, before you agree to impose real guardrails on a DHS that chooses to investigate itself, that stonewalls oversight, that even fights court orders to preserve evidence in the killing of an American citizen?

• Collectively, on a bipartisan and bicameral basis, let those agents know, no one is above the law. That is not just an opportunity, but an obligation that we have in this moment. Public safety depends on legitimacy - and legitimacy depends on accountability and speaking the truth. Our laws mean nothing if those that are assigned to enforce the laws believe that the laws don't apply to them.

• We are not powerless… Congress is a co-equal branch of government in the United States of America, and it's about time we act like it. That's why I support imposing serious reforms, real oversight, and accountability on ICE and CBP before this body provides them any more taxpayer dollars.

Video of Senator Padilla's remarks is available here and can be downloaded here.

Senator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump's cruel and indiscriminate mass deportation agenda, including against his unprecedented, illegal militarization of Los Angeles and other American cities. Earlier today, Padilla and Senator Schiff joined U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and every Senate Judiciary Democrat in urging the Department of Justice to heed the calls of career prosecutors and open a civil rights investigation into the death of Renee Good. Earlier this month, Padilla joined leading immigration advocates and interfaith leaders at an "ICE Out for Good" rally and vigil to condemn the Trump Administration's abuses against American communities and to demand ICE and CBP leave Minnesota after Good's killing. Last month, Padilla and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced the Accountability for Federal Law Enforcement Act to allow individuals - regardless of citizenship - the right to sue federal law enforcement officers and agencies in civil court for violations of their civil and constitutional rights.

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