NBC: Sen. Alex Padilla walks out of hearing on ICE, says it wasn’t a ‘serious conversation’
By Julie Tsirkin and Brennan Leach
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., walked out of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on border security and immigration hearing this afternoon, telling NBC News that it was “clearly not” a serious attempt to examine Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“If there was a serious conversation, we’d have government officials participating as witnesses to the questions. There’s no representative of the Department of Homeland Security here. There’s no representative of ICE here to engage in meaningful conversation. And that’s not a coincidence,” Padilla said.
Padilla added that he spoke to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who chairs the subcommittee, about his request to have relevant witnesses present, but “obviously nothing changed,” he said.
“We can’t sit by and ignore the violations of due process, the violations of fundamental civil rights that we’re witnessing in communities across the country, perpetrated by federal agents,” Padilla said.
He added that “both Democrats and Republicans have a responsibility to conduct that appropriate oversight of this administration. So I’m hoping those future hearings, if he’s genuine, lives up to that commitment, move in that direction, as well.”
In June, Padilla was forcibly removed from a news conference in Los Angeles after he tried to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a media event related to immigration.
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