On Sunday, Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), the same senator who, on June 12, 2025, was handcuffed and forcibly removed from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press conference after attempting to charge the stage with questions, was on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and asserted that illegal immigrants in the U.S. are simply “long-term residents” who “happen to be undocumented.”
Padilla’s stance is a critique of President Donald Trump’s second administration’s attempt to fulfill his campaign promises of securing the border and conducting mass deportations. Illegal crossing has dropped to record lows according to statistics revealed by a recent White House press release showing only 4,598 illegal immigrants were arrested at the border last month.
The number provided by the White House is a staggering 97% decrease from July 2022 (181,834), 96% decrease from July 2023 (132,642), and 92% decrease from July 2024 (56,400) and a testament to Trump’s success in fulfilling his campaign promises.
In response to Trump’s success, NBC Host Kristen Welker asked Padilla if he would give Trump “credit” for the “record low crossings at the border.”
Padilla, partially dodging the question, responded saying:
“Look, we should debate how the reduction in crossings has come about.”
…
“But, I think most importantly, let’s look at the different pieces of what the immigration system looks like. Border security, everybody agrees we need an orderly, humane border. There’s an element of people wanting to come to the United States and how those programs need to be modernized and updated.”
Padilla further established his platform of providing illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship by characterizing “undocumented” (illegal) aliens as merely “long-term residents”:
“Millions of long-term residents of the United States who happen to be undocumented that have been the target of this administration’s increasingly aggressive and cruel arrest, detention and deportation policies. If, and this is important to emphasize, they were truly only going after the dangerous violent criminals they so often talk about, there would be no debate, there would be no discussion.”
Padilla further mentioned that many of the deported illegal immigrants lack “criminal-violent convictions.” He also neglected to consider that, though many illegal immigrants haven’t been convicted and may be peaceful, they have still committed at least one crime: illegally entering the U.S.
Padilla’s critique of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ignores the agency’s resounding success in securing the border and arresting dangerous illegal immigrants. Just last week, the agency announced the arrest of 214 illegal immigrants in the Houston, Texas area involved in sex crimes with minors.
The Houston arrests highlight ICE’s focus on removing dangerous criminals, challenging Padilla’s narrative of an unfocused ICE providing harsh enforcement for illegal immigrants when, on the contrary, they’re simply enforcing the law to protect citizens when sanctuary cities refuse to do so.
As President Trump said in a recent White House press briefing:
Photo by: Rumble.com Screenshot“We have to act quickly when it comes to illegal immigration. We have murderers, killers, we have drug dealers. We have what they’ve allowed to come into our country. It should never be forgotten. It should never be forgotten, what they’ve done to our country.”