WATCH: Padilla Advocates for Oversight, Modernizing Immigration System on the One-Year Anniversary of Being Tackled, Handcuffed by DHS Agents

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, joined MS NOW's Morning Joe on the one-year anniversary of his tackling and forcible removal by federal agents at a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press conference in Los Angeles.

One year ago, on June 12, 2025, Padilla was in a Los Angeles federal building conducting congressional oversight of federal operations amid the Trump Administration's unjustified deployment of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, National Guard troops, and active-duty U.S. Marines across Los Angeles. He was scheduled to receive a briefing from General Gregory Guillot when then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem held a press conference in the same building. Having been escorted into the room by federal officials, Padilla stepped forward to ask Noem a question and was immediately tackled by federal agents, removed from the room, and forced to the ground.

Since then, the Administration's immigration enforcement tactics have grown more violent and widespread. Padilla reflected on the Administration's cruel immigration agenda enacted in the last year, highlighting that their harmful immigration enforcement policies have only intensified. Padilla emphasized the disturbing conditions at detention centers, the attacks on legal immigration including on DACA recipients experiencing unnecessary renewal delays, and the lack of accountability from this Administration.

Padilla also reiterated his call for modernizing the U.S. legal immigration system. He highlighted the positive economic impact immigrants make nationwide and the need for leaders to put forward a vision of an immigration system rooted in dignity, security, and due process.

Full interview is available here.

Key excerpts:

On Immigration Enforcement, One-Year Later:

We're still here and we're still fighting. But their tactics have changed. You don't see the visuals of the nightly news or social media of cruelty and violence in the streets, but you're seeing maybe even more cruel than using the process. From detention facilities that are not open to the press for oversight and accountability.

[…] And then, of course, the delays in people's paperwork. We have DACA renewals that are taking months and months and months longer than they used to. In the meantime, people's DACA statuses expiring and they are more vulnerable to deportation. They're no longer able to work while their applications are in limbo. They're using the system to continue to make life difficult for immigrants, the vast majority who are not the dangerous, violent criminals they say they were going to focus on.

On the Trump Administration's Crackdown on Undocumented Workers:

For all their talk about targeting the worst of the worst, the vast majority of people that have been arrested and have been detained - this is ICE's own data, by the way - do not have the violent criminal convictions on their record. They have no criminal convictions on their record. Their only crime in the eyes of the Administration is their presence in this country. But a lot of them work in essential jobs, key to essential industries for the American economy. So it's completely backwards thinking.

On the Horrendous Conditions in Detention Centers and ICE Tactics:

I've heard and seen the spoiled food that's being served. I've seen the lack of clean water. I've heard the stories of the medical care that's not being given. And it's not just, "Oh, I have a headache. I need, you know, a Tylenol or Advil or something." These are people with chronic conditions, many with injuries sustained while they were being apprehended in a courtroom. Right. They were trying to do it the proper way. And that's where ICE took advantage of the opportunity to take somebody into detention.

[…] And the Administration is trying to hide behind new policies to even keep members of Congress from conducting our duty of oversight. But the courts, I think, will ultimately prevail. But in the meantime, yeah, these conditions continue.

On Modernizing our Immigration System:

Our immigration system as a whole does need modernization. People wanting to come to the United States lawfully, whether it's work visas, student visas, or anything else.

We've got to bring those into modern times for the sake of our economic global competitiveness. And we cannot forget the millions of people who have been long-term residents of the United States. They've been living here, raising families here, paying taxes here, contributing to the health of our nation. They deserve better than to live in the shadows, than to live in the fear or terror that this Administration has brought upon them.

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