Sen. Alex Padilla ‘knew exactly what he was doing’ with ‘disgusting’ arrest stunt, border czar Tom Homan tells ‘Pod Force One’
California Sen. Alex Padilla (D) barging unannounced into a Department of Homeland Security press conference to oppose President Trump’s migrant deportations earlier this month was “disgusting,” border czar Tom Homan erupted on a new episode of the “Pod Force One” podcast, out Wednesday.
“He knew exactly [what] he was doing. Yeah, let’s make a scene. Let me get on TV,” Homan fumed to Post columnist and podcast host Miranda Devine. “Now they’re up in arms. It’s disgusting.”
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During a June 12 briefing by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on the Los Angeles riots, Padilla burst into the room and began shouting at Noem, forcing law enforcement officers to restrain him.
Every week, Post columnist Miranda Devine sits down for exclusive and candid conversations with the most influential disruptors in Washington. Subscribe here!
Padilla, who later said he had been looking for answers about the Trump administration’s “increasingly extreme” immigration policy, was then hauled out of the meeting and handcuffed while continuing to shout “Hands off!”
“I’m Sen. Alex Padilla! I have questions for the secretary!” the Democrat yelled before he was shoved outside and put in handcuffs, viral footage of the scuffle showed, before being released.
Noem also met briefly with him following the press conference.
Democrats were quick to denounce Padilla’s treatment. “This is outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful,” seethed California Governor Gavin Newsom on X.
Even as Los Angeles remained under riot-induced curfew, lefty Mayor Karen Bass joined in Newsom’s outrage, calling Padilla’s removal “abhorrent” and “outrageous.”
Homan, in the latest “Pod Force One” episode, said that the Democrats’ response to Padilla butting heads with federal immigration officers, which was repeated days later by New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander, has been vastly overblown and hypocritical.
“They can’t honestly sit there and say, ‘OK, I shouldn’t remove criminal aliens from the United States. They’re screaming and yelling about ICE arresting people … and enforcing the law,” Homan told Devine.
“Meanwhile, in four years under Biden,” the border czar added, “sex trafficking women and children skyrocketed. Not a word.”
The Biden administration lost contact with more than 300,000 migrant kids who were either presumed to be in the custody of domestic sponsors or believed to be missing after failing to show up for immigration court hearings, according to an August 2024 report from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General.
Full episode
Thousands later went to live with sponsors who were flagged as potential sex traffickers or gang members.
Homan also rattled off issues that Democrats kept quiet about during the Biden administration — despite creating “the biggest national security vulnerability in this nation” by allowing the border to remain open without trying to “say a word” about the lawlessness that resulted.
“Eighteen hundred gotaways a day, not a word; apprehensions climbed over 10,000 a day, not a word; over 400 people on terrorist watchlists cross, they got apprehended, not a word; but more than that, two million gotaways,” the border czar went on.
“More than 2 million people crossed the border. We don’t know who they are, where they came from, why they’re here, because they got away, not a word,” he charged.
“So they didn’t care about the legal process then, they didn’t care about justification,” added Homan. “Now, of a sudden, [they’re] trying to enforce law.”
In the aftermath of the press conference stunt, Vice President JD Vance accused Padilla of engaging in “pure political theater.”
He also referred to the California senator as “Jose” Padilla, an error that the VP’s office explained was Vance “mix[ing] up two people who have broken the law.”
In an interview with MSNBC, Padilla said that the name-swap was “an indicator of how petty and unserious this administration is.”
He insisted that his stunt was a spontaneous attempt at congressional oversight and that Noem’s “rhetoric compelled” him to disrupt the briefing.
“I will say that people need to identify themselves before they start lunging at people,” DHS Secretary Noem said of Padilla’s interruption and removal.
Earlier this week, Padilla broke down in tears on the Senate floor while recounting his ejection from the news conference.
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