Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass — accused of being out of touch and slow to action during the recent fires — took the gloves off today in response to the assault on California U.S. Senator Alex Padilla by members of Trump Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s security detail earlier in the day.

Violent protests against ICE raids in Los Angeles prompt deployment of National Guard troops as local officials call for federal agents to leave and demand an end to immigration enforcement.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and officials from more than a dozen other cities in L.A. County banded together on Wednesday, June 11, offering a unified message to President Donald Trump and his administration: End the immigration raids and stop sowing unnecessary fear in our communities.

Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly removed and handcuffed at a DHS news conference in Los Angeles, sparking outrage from city and state leaders and fueling criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Bass and Noem entered the House together in 2011 and served together until Noem left Congress to become the governor of South Dakota in 2019.

"How could you say that you did not know who he was?" L.A. Mayor Karen Bass speaks out on the forced removal of California Sen. Alex Padilla from a DHS press conference. DHS claimed the senator "interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself.

The mayor denounced the forcible removal of Sen. Alex Padilla from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's press conference earlier in the day.