California Sen. Alex Padilla’s Emotional Senate Speech — Explained

Navarrette Nation Substack — The Explainer 5/20/25

Advisory: Americans are tired of opinions. What they want instead are clear and simple explanations for what they see going on in a world that seems to get more complicated by the week. In that spirit, the Friday edition of Navarrette Nation Substack will now be titled “The Explainer.” Every Friday, the one big story of the week, explained. Simple as that.

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779 words; 9 min

On Tuesday June 17, Sen. Alex (aka “Jose”) Padilla, the senior senator from California, rose to speak on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

“Jose” is the moniker given to the senator today by Vice President JD Vance, who mockingly and condescendingly referred to him by the most common Mexican first name known to mankind. Apparently, as far as Vance is concerned, Mexican Americans don’t just all look alike. We also all have the same name. It was rude, racist and reductive.

By the way, this is how bad Mexicans have it in the year 2025: We’re being insulted and looked down on by a self-proclaimed “hillbilly.”

Back on the Senate floor, Padilla was there to give a public, and on the record, accounting of what happened to him the week before when — during a news conference in Occupied Los Angeles — he tried to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question about the ICE raids roiling the City of Angels. Noem’s security detail decided the soft-spoken, mild-mannered MIT-educated engineer was a threat to, well, I assume, the homeland. They shoved Padilla out of the room, wrestled him to the ground and handcuffed him.

And just like that, one of the few Latino members of the U.S. Senate probably got a new nickname: “JAMIC.” Just another Mexican in cuffs.

As with every other Mexican or Mexican American who has — in the last two weeks — been detained or arrested or tossed into an unmarked vehicle and made to disappear, the goal was cruelty. The goal was chaos. The goal was humiliation.

Padilla emerged from the manhandling with a story to tell, and — as many of us would have done — he decided to tell it at work.

You should find and read the whole speech. But, for now, here’s the best part:

“If you watched what unfolded last week and thought this was about one politician or one press conference, you’re missing the point.

If that’s what this Administration will do to a United States Senator for having the audacity to simply ask a question, imagine what they’ll do to any American who dares to speak up…

This isn’t about me. In fact, it’s not even just about immigrant communities or about Californians.

It’s about every single American who values their constitutional rights.

It’s about anyone who’s ever exercised their First Amendment rights, or ever disagreed with a president, or who simply values living in a democracy and wants to keep it…

It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican, a Democrat, or an independent — we all have a responsibility to speak up and to push back, before it’s too late.”

Padilla said a lot. But, even so, he didn’t say everything he went to the Senate floor to say. He danced around that part. He held back. He got close to it when he talked about how “if that’s what this Administration will do to a United States Senator…” He came close to saying it in media interviews after the incident, when he talked about how — if this is how he was going to be treated — farm workers and cooks and other working-class Latinos didn’t stand a chance of getting the respect they deserved from the Trump administration.

Piecing it all together, here’s what Padilla was really trying to say:

“You arrogant sonsabitches! My parents, Santos and Lupe, came here from Mexico and worked their asses off their whole lives – my dad a short-order cook, my mom as a housekeeper – to give their three children a shot at a better life, one marked by softer hands and shorter hours. I took that shot and made it all the way to MIT. I became an engineer before entering politics. I’ve lived the American Dream. And so when Trump’s goons manhandle me – and I will say, it took three of them to wrestle me to the ground – when they insult and disrespect me like that, they’re not just insulting and disrespecting my parents, my family, my community and my people. They’re insulting and disrespecting something as sacred as the American Dream. And in doing so, they are insulting and disrespecting America herself. Listen closely. I have earned the right to be here, sitting in comfortable chairs as your colleague and your equal. That is something that no one can take from me. I don’t care how many thugs the White House sends or how many pairs of handcuffs they bring with them. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right fucking here. Speaking truth to power, and holding the powerful to account. That’s the job. And I intend to do it.”

Yeah, that’s what Padilla meant to say. Way to go, Jose!

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Fresh Ink —

Creators Syndicate

Nationally Syndicated Column, 6/12/25

Ruben Navarrette

Neither Republicans nor Democrats Are Consistent on Immigration

SAN DIEGO -- Americans are really good at pointing out the contradictions of others, but really bad at acknowledging their own.

The immigration debate proves it. That's where consistency goes to die.

Trust me. Having written and spoken about that issue for more than 35 years, I've become an expert.

I'm not saying I'm an expert on immigration. Like many of my fellow Americans, the fact that I was born in the United States -- along with my parents and three grandparents, with the fourth having arrived in the U.S. legally from Mexico more than 100 years ago -- means I'm out of my depth when it comes to understanding the immigrant experience.

My expertise is in the immigration debate. I got there by taking three roads: my personal experience as a Mexican American who has followed the immigration debate for more than three decades from cities in the Southwest such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas and San Diego; the fact that, as a journalist, I consume tons of information on immigration and other issues from multiple sources across the ideological spectrum; and the fact that I'm a political centrist who tries to keep an open mind as I travel down the middle of the road.

Here's our lesson for the day, class: The reason that Americans don't make any headway on this issue is because the immigration debate is crippled by dishonesty.

One example of that dishonesty is how -- when it comes to immigration and immigrants -- Americans reserve the right to be flexible in our own positions while quickly calling out our opponents for flip-flops and contradictions. The flaws in their arguments are crystal clear to us; the shortcomings in our own, not so much.

This is one of the many afflictions that plague both parties.

For their part, Democrats are masters at contradicting themselves and flipping the script.

In June 1963, they applauded when President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard and removed Gov. George Wallace from the doorway of the University of Alabama where the notorious segregationist was blocking the entry of two enrolled Black students -- Vivian Malone and James Hood.

Now, in 2025, when the president in question is Donald Trump and the armed forces being federalized belong to the California National Guard, which is normally under the command of Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democrats suddenly aren't so keen on the idea of a presidential override of a governor's authority.

Yet, on the other hand, when it comes to inconsistency and double-talk, Trump and other Republicans can hold their own.

There is the one big example. Trump couldn't wait to call out the National Guard in Los Angeles to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as they enforce federal immigration law. But -- as he was closing out his first term on Jan. 6, 2021 -- he refused to dispatch the Washington National Guard to suppress a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. There were at least two reasons for his reluctance: One, Trump had no interest in stopping a riot that he started, and two -- as he would later say -- he considered Jan. 6 to be a "day of love."

We're just getting warmed up.

-- Trump and the rest of the GOP claims to support states' rights and local control but, apparently, only when the states are red and the localities are under the control of Republicans.

-- MAGA is offended by immigrant protesters waving Mexican flags at immigration protests, but they're fine with those who protest the removal of confederate statues waving the Stars and Bars.

-- Trump treats legal residency as priceless when denying it to immigrants, but then he cheapens it by putting a price on it ($5 million) and creating a "Gold Card" visa for wealthy migrants.

-- Trump keeps a straight face when talking about upholding the rule of law to justify his crackdown on illegal immigrants despite his own felony convictions, Jan. 6 pardons and unlawful decrees.

-- Conservatives want people to "follow the rules" when coming to the United States. Now an administration they put in office is breaking the rules in order to remove as many as 3,000 undocumented immigrants per day.

-- Republicans built their brand around supporting family values and defending the unborn. Now they're grinning as parents are deported, children are traumatized and immigrant families are ripped apart.

When it comes to inconsistency, let the party without sin cast the first stone. Guess what? No one is picking up a stone.

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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