Trump officials vow to step up LA crackdown; Democratic US senator dragged away in protest

Los Angeles: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged to "liberate" Los Angeles on Thursday at a press conference that was dramatically interrupted when federal agents dragged a Democratic US senator out of the room, forced him to the ground and handcuffed him.

Senator Alex Padilla of California was forcibly ejected after he tried to ask Noem a question during her press conference in Los Angeles, video of the scene shared by his office showed. Noem said later Padilla had not identified himself as a senator during the scuffle, but the video clearly shows him doing so.

Noem was in the city after days of protests against federal immigration raids by the Trump administration. President Donald Trump, a Republican, has deployed the National Guard and the Marines, despite the objections of the state's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, and other officials, who say the move is unnecessary.

Trump has defended his decision, saying if he had not done so the city would be in flames. The protests so far have been mostly peaceful, punctuated by incidents of violence and restricted to a few city blocks. The mayor of Los Angeles has also imposed a night-time curfew in parts of the city.

"We're going to stay here and build our operations until we make sure we liberate the city of Los Angeles," Noem said.

In a statement, DHS said US Secret Service agents believed Padilla was an "attacker" who did not comply with orders to back away. Noem and Padilla ended up meeting for 15 minutes to discuss his concerns over the immigration raids, the department said.

The video showed Padilla being forced to lie on the ground in a corridor outside the press conference room by federal agents, who then handcuffed his hands behind his back.

Padilla met with reporters after the incident telling them, "If this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farmers to cooks to day laborers throughout the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country."

Some 700 US Marines will be on the streets of the city by Thursday or Friday, the military has said, to support up to 4,000 National Guard troops in protecting federal property and federal agents, including on immigration raids.

The state of California is seeking a federal court order later today that would stop troops from "patrolling the streets of Los Angeles" and limit their role to protecting federal personnel and property. California's lawsuit ultimately seeks to rescind Trump's order to deploy the National Guard to the area.

In a court filing on Thursday, California argued that the federal government has already violated the law by having National Guard troops assist ICE agents in immigration raids.

Noem said federal officers have arrested more than 1,500 people and that the department has "tens of thousands of targets" in the region.

She said the Internal Revenue Service was investigating whether there are financial links between the protests and political advocacy groups, something of which there has been little evidence