{"id":113060,"date":"2026-01-28T22:25:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T22:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=113060"},"modified":"2026-01-28T22:25:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T22:25:26","slug":"ecuador-says-ice-agent-attempted-to-enter-its-minneapolis-consulate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=113060","title":{"rendered":"Ecuador says ICE agent attempted to enter its Minneapolis consulate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 36 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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The government of Ecuador has condemned what it described as an attempt by a US federal immigration agent to enter the Ecuadorean consulate in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

The agent was prevented from gaining access by consular officials, who acted \u201cto guarantee the protection of the Ecuadoreans who were inside the consulate at the time\u201d, a statement by Ecuador\u2019s foreign ministry said.<\/p>\n

Ecuador, whose president is an ally of Trump, has filed an official complaint.<\/p>\n

The incident comes at a time of high tension in the US city, just days after intensive care nurse Alex Pretti was shot dead by border agents during protests against the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

Ecuador\u2019s foreign ministry said in a statement that an agent of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) had \u201ctried to enter the premises of the consulate\u201d at 11:00 local time (17:00 GMT) on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Under the\u00a01963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, consular premises are considered \u201cinviolable\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the Convention, the authorities of the country where the consulate is located \u201cshall not enter\u201d the parts of the consulate used for work \u201cexcept with the consent of the head of the consular post\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ecuador said that its officials had not consented to ICE entering the consulate.<\/p>\n

While the Vienna Convention states that consent may be inferred in certain cases, those instances are limited to situations requiring \u201cprompt protective action,\u201d such as a fire or other disaster.<\/p>\n

In a video shared by Ecuadorean media, which has not been independently verified by the BBC, a consular official can be seen rushing to the entrance door and telling an ICE agent, \u201cThis is the consulate, you\u2019re not allowed in here\u201d.<\/p>\n

The agent tells the official, \u201cIf you touch me, I will grab you\u201d.<\/p>\n

The consular official then states again that \u201cyou can not enter here, this is a consulate, this is a foreign government\u2019s office\u201d, before closing the door.<\/p>\n

In its statement, Ecuador\u2019s foreign ministry said that it had \u201cimmediately\u201d handed an official letter of protest to the US embassy in Quito.<\/p>\n

The protest letter constitutes a rare note of discord between Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa and the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Just over two months ago, the presidents agreed to strengthen their countries\u2019 commercial and economic relationship, and Noboa has in the past thanked Trump for designating two Ecuadorean criminal gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organisations.<\/p>\n

The actions of immigration and border agents in Minneapolis \u2013 in particular the fatal shooting of Pretti on 24 January and that of Renee Good a few weeks earlier \u2013 have triggered protests in the city and beyond.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, President Trump said he would\u00a0\u201cde-escalate\u201d immigration and border operations \u201ca little bit\u201d\u00a0in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

There are currently 3,000 immigration agents and officers in the region.<\/p>\n

Securing the U.S. border and implementing tougher enforcement of immigration rules have been among Trump\u2019s top priorities.<\/p>\n

According to a 20 January statement by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, her department removed \u201cmore than 675,000 illegal aliens\u201d from the US since Trump was sworn in to a second term a year ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"EcuadorThe government of Ecuador has condemned what it described as an attempt by a US federal immigration agent to enter the Ecuadorean consulate in Minneapolis.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9073,7269,1910,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecuador","category-ice","category-international","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}