QUITO: Ecuador on Tuesday (Jan 27) denounced what it said was an attempted incursion by US immigration agents into the South American country’s consulate in the flashpoint city of Minneapolis.
The government of Daniel Noboa, one of Washington’s closest allies in Latin America, sent a letter of protest to the US embassy in Quito regarding the incident, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
According to the note, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent tried to enter the consulate but was kept out by staffers to protect Ecuadorans who were inside the diplomatic mission.
Minneapolis, in the northern state of Minnesota, has emerged as the tense ground zero of the national clash over President Donald Trump’s harsh deportation drive after ICE agents shot and killed two protesters this month, one of them on Saturday as he lay pinned to the ground by masked officers.
A video of the attempt on social media shows a consulate staffer running to the door to turn the ICE agents away, telling them, “This is the Ecuadorian consulate. You’re not allowed to enter.”
One ICE officer can be heard responding by threatening to “grab” the staffer if he touched the agent before agreeing to leave.
“Consulate officials immediately prevented the ICE officer from entering the consular building, thus ensuring the protection of the Ecuadorians who were present at the time and activating the emergency protocols issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility,” the ministry wrote on X.
International law generally prohibits law enforcement authorities from entering foreign consulates or embassies without permission, though sometimes permission may be assumed granted for life-threatening emergencies, like fires.
The ministry demanded that “acts of this nature not be repeated in any of Ecuador’s consular offices in the United States”.
Trump announced earlier in the day that he would “de-escalate a little bit”, following the two fatal shootings.
Last week, a photograph showing a frightened five-year-old Ecuadorian boy being escorted by an immigration agent who was holding him by his Spiderman backpack went viral and fueled protests.