A standoff at a consulate door has added to the conflict in Minneapolis. Ecuador said a US immigration officer tried to get into its consulate in the city, prompting a formal protest and a reminder that foreign missions are off-limits without permission. Ecuador's foreign ministry said a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent showed up at its Minneapolis consulate around 11am Tuesday, the BBC reports, and "attempted to enter" the building but was blocked by staff.
Under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, consular offices are considered inviolable, and host country authorities can't go inside work areas without the explicit consent of the consul, except in narrow emergencies like fires or other disasters. Ecuador says no such consent was given. A video circulated by Ecuadorian media—verified by the New York Times—shows a staff member to the building's entrance and telling an ICE officer, "This is the consulate, you're not allowed in here." The agent answers, "If you touch me, I will grab you." The official repeats that the building is a foreign government's office and shuts the door, per the BBC.
The exterior of the consulate is clearly marked and carries Ecuador's national seal, per the Times. The foreign ministry said it immediately lodged a formal diplomatic protest with the US embassy in Ecuador "so that acts of this nature don't happen again." ICE agents are among roughly 3,000 officers in the region after fatal shootings by federal officers of Alex Pretti on Saturday and of Renee Good weeks earlier, which intensified protests. Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has mostly supported the Trump administration's deportations.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
