Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) used his official Spanish-language response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night to make unsubstantiated claims that Trump is preparing to use Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to “manipulate” the midterm elections. Sen. Padilla’s address was one of two official responses to the State of the Union on Tuesday, alongside that of Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger. While Padilla’s was intended to be the Spanish-language response, he veered into English on several occasions and used strange grammatical constructions in others, attempting to identify with his audience by referencing Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny and “faith” and church.
The California senator – previously perhaps best known for his belligerent interruption, and ultimate expulsion, from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press conference in June – recalled the incident, framing it as alleged evidence of abuse of power by President Trump. “Maybe they took me down for a moment, but then I got up later later [sic],” he offered. While repeatedly condemning ICE operations to detain and deport people illegally present in the United States, Sen. Padilla compared the current moment for Latin Americans to Japanese internment camps, the Chinese Exclusion Act, segregation laws in the South, and discrimination against the Irish and Italians in the early 1900s.
