Alex Padilla U.S. Senator for California

Padilla: “I love this country so much, I will call out anybody abusing their power to undermine those fundamental rights, especially when it’s the President of the United States.”

NEW YORK, NY — In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, joined The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to call out the Trump Administration’s cruel, unpopular mass deportation agenda, including indiscriminate immigration enforcement and the unprecedented militarization of Los Angeles in response to overwhelmingly peaceful protests.

Padilla highlighted his efforts to fight back against the Administration’s anti-immigrant actions stoking fear in communities across America, while offering a better path forward for modernizing the United States’ outdated immigration system, including his bill to update the existing Registry statute to expand a pathway to lawful permanent residency for millions of long-term U.S. residents.

Padilla also discussed his forcible removal from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s press conference in June, where he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed after attempting to ask a question, as well as Vice President J.D. Vance’s inflammatory comments referring to him as “José.”

Watch Senator Padilla’s full interview with Stephen Colbert here.

Key Excerpts:

On his violent detainment at a Department of Homeland Security press conference and the Trump Administration’s cruel immigration enforcement

• “Look, what happened to me happened to me, but it’s not about me. I think about what this Administration is doing to so many people across the country, but especially in California right now, with the obsession they have with this mass deportation agenda, when the reality is — and we know this from ICE statistics — the vast majority of people being arrested, being detained, being deported are the same people that so many families trust to care for our children, trust to care for aging parents. You know, they’re the people who are preparing and serving meals in restaurants, that are picking the fruit and vegetables and packaging the meat in factories that we depend on to put food at the table at home.”

• “When the whole public sees the father of three United States Marines being abused and detained, when the country learns about not just, I mean, legal residents and even United States citizens being caught up in these roundups, and when a farm worker falls to his death during an ICE raid, this Administration has gone too far. And I spoke up that day, and I’ll continue to speak up, and I’m going to continue to speak up until it comes around.”

On J.D. Vance referring to him as “José Padilla”

• “He’s the president of the United States Senate today by way of being Vice President. He served in the Senate for two years. We overlapped. He knows my name, but if he wants to try to mock and attack by calling me a José, I’ll tell you this: I’m proud to be a José because this Administration will use the term José and Maria to try to villainize immigrants, and it’s wrong. So to all the José’s and Marias out there who are contributing to the economy and working hard, building communities, we’re going to continue to stand up and rise up.”

On the Trump Administration’s deployment of the National Guard and active-duty Marines to Los Angeles

• “Most of the Marines have finally been withdrawn. They shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Not only was it not helpful, it was actually counterproductive. But of course, Donald Trump just wants the spectacle. He’s trying to escalate tensions whenever he can.”

• “Most of the National Guard troops are gone, but that being said, look, the fear is still there. The terror is still there. It’s palpable. I don’t just hear from constituents — I hear from friends, I hear from family, because the reality is this about their mass deportation operation. They’d like to talk about targeting violent criminals. When you’re going to workplaces to round up immigrants, it’s not because they’re not working. If they’re combing through IRS data to try to find where immigrants are, it’s not about immigrants not paying taxes. When they’re going to court houses to entrap immigrants who are showing up to their court hearings, it’s not that they’re not doing it the right way. And all this because of the demands of a guy with 34 felony convictions? It’s clearly not about the rule of law.”

On his continued efforts to hold President Trump accountable for his cruelty toward immigrant communities

• “I love this country so much, I want her to live up to the values, the ideals, and the rights that we’ve enshrined in the Constitution. And I love this country so much, I will call out anybody abusing their power to undermine those fundamental rights, especially when it’s the President of the United States.”

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