US Senator Alex Padilla physically restrained by FBI in Los Angeles

A US senator was forcibly removed and handcuffed by FBI agents at a press conference held by homeland security secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles on Thursday, in a dramatic escalation of tensions in California.

Men in plain clothes pushed Alex Padilla, the Democratic senator from California, from the room as Noem spoke to reporters at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles.

Video of the altercation showed FBI agents wrestling Padilla to the ground outside the room and handcuffing him.

Footage showed Padilla saying he wanted “to know why you insist on exaggerating and embellishing” before he was accosted.

A spokesperson for Padilla said the senator was “exercising his duty to perform congressional oversight of the federal government’s operations” in Los Angeles and California.

“He tried to ask the secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed. He is not currently detained, and we are working to get additional information.”

The altercation involving a member of the US Congress’s upper chamber and federal agents marked a new escalation after days of tensions in Los Angeles, where the Trump administration has ordered the deployment of National Guard troops and US Marines to help in an anti-immigration crackdown.

Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said: “I just saw something that sickened my stomach, the manhandling of a United States senator. We need immediate answers to what the hell went on.”

Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat, added: “This is the stuff of dictatorships.”

Noem, who was addressing events in the city, told reporters at the press conference that Padilla’s actions were inappropriate.

“I don’t even know the senator,” she said, adding she would “have a conversation with him and visit and find out, really, what his concerns were”.

“I think everybody in America would have to agree that that wasn’t appropriate, that if you wanted to have a civil discussion, especially as a leader, a public official, that you would reach out and try to have a conversation,” Noem said.

A spokesperson for the department of homeland security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Spokespeople for the Department of Justice and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Additional reporting by Stefania Palma in Washington