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WATCH<\/a>: Padilla: \u201cStop militarizing our cities and using our service members as political pawns.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \n WASHINGTON, D.C.<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, announced on the Senate floor that he placed a hold on President Trump\u2019s nominee to serve as vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lieutenant General Thomas Carden, until the Trump Administration releases all remaining U.S. military forces from their unjustified deployment to Los Angeles. Lieutenant General Carden currently serves as second-in-command of Northern Command \u2014 the combatant command that has enforced Trump\u2019s orders to militarize Los Angeles. Padilla blasted President Trump for manufacturing a crisis and escalating tensions in the region by deploying 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 active-duty Marines without Governor Newsom\u2019s consent.<\/p>\n \n After intense and successful political pressure from Democrats, the Trump Administration finally announced earlier this week that they would release 2,000 National Guard troops from their deployment to Los Angeles; however, approximately 2,000 National Guardsmen and all 700 Marines still remain. In response to the ongoing militarization of Los Angeles, Padilla will oppose any expedited consideration of Carden\u2019s nomination until the Administration:<\/p>\n \n \n Trump\u2019s deployment of the California National Guard went against the wishes of the Governor for the first time since 1965. The Cal Guard serves honorably in overseas deployments in support of our allies and partners, disaster response efforts, and counter-drug missions. Padilla urged Trump to return these troops to their core missions, including wildfire mitigation efforts during peak fire season. He cited that the head of the U.S. Northern Command requested in late June that Secretary Hegseth return 200 troops from the National Guard\u2019s wildfire unit who were stuck in Los Angeles to enact Trump\u2019s political agenda.<\/p>\n \n Key Excerpts:<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Video of Senator Padilla\u2019s full remarks is available\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n Senator Padilla has been outspoken in\u00a0criticizing\u00a0Trump\u2019s mass deportations and unprecedented militarization and escalation of tensions by deploying National Guard troops and active-duty U.S. Marines to respond to overwhelmingly peaceful protests in Los Angeles. Padilla recently\u00a0led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus<\/a>\u00a0in demanding that President Trump immediately withdraw all military forces from Los Angeles and cease all threats to deploy the National Guard or active-duty service members to American cities. Padilla spoke on the Senate floor following his\u00a0forcible removal<\/a>\u00a0from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem\u2019s press conference, where he was\u00a0thrown to the ground and handcuffed<\/a>\u00a0after attempting to ask a question. He has\u00a0spoken at a\u00a0spotlight hearing<\/a>\u00a0and on the\u00a0Senate floor<\/a>\u00a0multiple<\/a>\u00a0other times<\/a>\u00a0to blast President Trump for manufacturing a crisis by launching indiscriminate Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids across Los Angeles and using that crisis to dramatically expand executive power.<\/p>\n \n Last week, Padilla and Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced the\u00a0VISIBLE Act<\/a><\/em>\u00a0to require immigration enforcement officers to display clearly visible identification during public-facing enforcement actions. Padilla also led 13 Democratic Senators in a\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0criticizing ICE for engaging in counterproductive, theatrical enforcement activities \u2014 including raids on\u00a0courthouses<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0restaurants<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and requesting information from the agency on its mask and uniform policies. Additionally, Padilla is\u00a0leading legislation<\/a>\u00a0to restrict the President\u2019s authority under the 217-year-old\u00a0Insurrection\u00a0Act<\/em>\u00a0and limit the domestic deployment of military troops for law enforcement purposes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WATCH: Padilla: \u201cStop militarizing our cities...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74195,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74194\/revisions\/74195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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