The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is calling on Republican leadership to “uphold the dignity and authority of Congress” after Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was handcuffed after interjecting at a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday.
Padilla was blocked by security as he advanced toward the front of the room, identifying himself and saying he had a question. He was then pushed out of the room by security, forced to the ground and handcuffed.
The incident is sparking concern among Democrats who see his treatment as a crackdown on the party’s pushback on the administration.
More than 180 Democrats signed on to a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) calling the episode “shocking and deeply troubling mistreatment.”
“Senator Padilla clearly identified himself and was acting within his rights as a Member of Congress. The use of force against a sitting senator—in a federal building, during official business—is a grave breach of protocol. It is also a potential violation of separation of powers and raises alarming questions about the conduct of federal law enforcement agencies, the coordination of protective services, and the administration’s posture toward congressional oversight,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter spearheaded by the CHC.
“This unprecedented incident is not simply an affront to security protocol—it is a constitutional issue—as these actions may constitute an assault on a sitting senator. If members of the United States Senate can be physically restrained for seeking answers from executive officials, it sets a dangerous precedent for the independence of the legislative branch.”
Thune’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Johnson’s office pointed to earlier remarks from the Speaker, including his backing of censuring Padilla over the move.
“A sitting member of Congress should not act like that. It is beneath a member of Congress. It is beneath a U.S. Senator. They’re supposed to lead by example. And that is not a good example. We have to turn the temperature down in this country and not escalate it. The Democrat Party is on the wrong side. They are defending lawbreakers and now they are acting like lawbreakers themselves,” Johnson said last week.
Pressed on whether Padilla should face consequences, Johnson initially demurred — ”it’s not my decision to make, I’m not in that chamber” — before endorsing censure for the California Democrat.
“I think that that behavior at a minimum rises to the level of a censure,” Johnson told reporters. “I think there needs to be a message sent by the body as a whole that that is not what we’re going to do, that’s not what we’re going to act.”
“We’re not going to have branches fighting physically and having senators charging Cabinet secretaries,” he added. “We got to do better, and I hope that we will.”
Thune said he plans to “gather all the relevant information” about what happened.
“We want to get the full scope of what happened and do what we would do in any incident like this involving a senator and try to gather all the relevant information,” Thune said.
CHC Chair Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) last week led a march to Johnson’s office shortly after Padilla was handcuffed.
“I feel this amounts to an assault, a felony, and we want a full and complete investigation of this matter immediately,” Espaillat said at the time.
“We have concerns, grave concerns, when the Speaker of the House refers to a sitting member of the U.S. Senate who simply tried to exercise his first amendment rights as acting like a thug.”
“We feel very strongly that there is an intimidation campaign to try to silence dissent, and that’s very dangerous,” he added.
