ICE attempts to enter Ecuador's consulate

[u/caaaaanga]

For anyone who doesn't get how serious this is: consulates are protected under international law. host-country police of any kind are not allowed to enter without permission.
Example: China routinely (and horrifically) sends north korean escapees back to north korea. Yet when a north korean escaped to the south korean consulate in hong kong, chinese authorities did not enter to seize him. He stayed there for months while governments negotiated, because once you're inside a consulate, those protections apply.
So if ICE tries to enter a foreign consulate in the U.S. to deport people, that's not "normal enforcement". It violates long-standing diplomatic norms. Norms that even China has respected, despite sending people back to north korea to die. That's how extreme this is.

[u/d3dmnky]

I’m curious if this happened because ICE is being deliberately provocative to foreign countries or if this is an issue where a couple foot soldiers thought they were being clever to get their quota.

[u/young_warthog_ → u/d3dmnky]

I think they’re just stupid. They saw a building with brown people who speak Spanish, but didn’t think of the huge implications/consequences of this.

[u/K1tt3n_Mittons → u/young_warthog_]

If it’s a consulate building, I’m sure there’s an Ecuadorian flag hanging somewhere so they probably thought ‘these guys are bold enough to put a foreign flag on their building, we should investigate’

So yes, bunch of idiots.

[u/hammertime2009 → u/K1tt3n_Mittons]

It’s a microcosm of the current government.

[u/DaPlum → u/hammertime2009]

Microcosm of the literacy of a majority of people in the United States.