A Republican legislator and Vietnamese refugee was dragged from the state Senate floor Thursday morning when a Democratic leader ordered her removed after she tried to criticize the late Tom Hayden, a former state senator and vocal opponent of the war in Vietnam.

State Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Garden Grove (Orange County), who was born in what was then Saigon, spoke briefly in Vietnamese, but her microphone was shut off less than 30 seconds after she began to repeat her remarks in English.

State Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens (Los Angeles County), who was presiding over the short floor session, called on Nguyen to sit down a dozen times, telling her she was out of order. But when Nguyen continued to read her statement into her dead microphone, Lara took stronger action.

“Sergeants, please remove Senator Nguyen from the chamber,” he said. “Have her removed immediately.”

Photo: George Brich, Associated Press Photo: Fairfield Citizen News / Mike Ross 2/28/06 Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press Photo: George Brich, Associated Press

A pair of sergeants-at-arms who were on their way to Nguyen’s seat on the Senate floor grabbed her by the arms and pulled her off the floor. But Nguyen, still shouting out her statement, tried to turn back toward Lara, forcing the sergeants to redouble their efforts to hustle her away.

Her ejection from the Senate floor sparked instant controversy, with Republicans blasting Lara and the Democrats for what they called a violation of Nguyen’s right to free speech.

“I was very, very surprised when this happened. I’ve never heard of this happening and certainly never seen it in my (time) in the Legislature,” Senate Republican Leader Jean Fuller of Bakersfield said in a telephone interview. “I’m enraged, I’m angry and convinced this is totally overreaching (by the Democrats). ... A senator’s freedom of speech should not be taken lightly.”

Even while Nguyen was speaking, Lara called on state Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, who rose quickly to criticize Nguyen, arguing that it was neither the time nor the place to attack Hayden, who died Oct. 23 and had been honored on the Senate floor Tuesday.

Nguyen’s statement “was fully inappropriate,” Monning said as the Republican state senator was removed from the floor. “It denigrates the respect shown to colleagues and particularly to fallen colleagues of this house.”

In her statement, which Nguyen posted on her state Senate website, she argued that she was offering “another historical perspective” on Hayden, a founder of the 1960s radical group Students for a Democratic Society, one of the “Chicago Seven” arrested at the 1968 Democratic National Convention and a peace activist who served 18 years in the state Legislature.

Nguyen said she stepped out of the Senate chamber during Hayden’s memorial Tuesday, “out of respect to his family, his friends and you (senators).”

But she argued that Hayden “chose to work directly with the Communist North Vietnamese government to oppose the efforts of the United States forces in South Vietnam,” siding with a government “that enslaved and or killed millions of Vietnamese, including members of my own family.”

In a statement Thursday afternoon, Nguyen said that she was silenced and forcibly removed from the Senate floor, “in clear violation of my First Amendment rights,” arguing that the Democrats’ action also silenced the voice of the people in her district.

“My family came to this country in search of the very freedom that was taken away from me this morning,” she said.

Democrats argued that Nguyen was breaking Senate rules by going after Hayden when she stood for what was expected to be a standard request to adjourn the Senate in memory of someone recently deceased.

“I am greatly unsettled by what took place on the floor,” Democratic state Sen. Kevin de León of Los Angeles, the Senate leader, said at a Thursday morning news conference. “There was a parliamentary procedure that wasn’t followed, which could have easily been dealt with.”

In a statement released later in the day, de León was more conciliatory.

“To be very clear, every senator has the right to speak for their constituents, including Senator Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee who represents an incredibly diverse community,” he said. “At the same time, to maintain order so every senator can be heard, we all observe a clear set of parliamentary rules, which were explained beforehand to Sen. Nguyen and her staff.”

De León said he planned to speak with Nguyen about the incident.

But Fuller said she has called for the incident to be reviewed by the Senate Rules Committee and would fight any effort by Democratic leaders to censure Nguyen or take any reprisals against her, such as removing her from committees or moving her to a different, less desirable, office.

As a senator, Nguyen has a right to call for an adjournment in memory of anyone, the GOP leader said.

“She was calling for adjournment in memory of deceased Vietnamese refugees,” Fuller said.

The episode has similarities to one that took place earlier this month in the U.S. Senate, when Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was silenced by the Republican leadership.

Warren, speaking against then-Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination as attorney general, was trying to read aloud a 1986 letter from the late Coretta Scott King arguing against appointing Sessions as a federal judge. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., forced Warren to stop, arguing that she had violated a little-used rule barring senators from disparaging each other.

Warren was silenced, and Sessions become attorney general, but there was blowback for the Republicans. McConnell’s comment that Warren was “given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted,” has become a rallying point for Democrats, who have used “she persisted” as a slogan for resistance to President Trump.

Chronicle staff writer Melody Gutierrez contributed to this story.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @jfwildermuth

How to watch

Thursday’s incident can be viewed at the state Senate media archive. Nguyen’s speech begins at about the 32 minute mark: http://senate.ca.gov/media-archive