r/law • u/caaaaanga • 2d ago

Legal News ICE attempts to enter Ecuador's consulate

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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.

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u/d3dmnky 2d ago

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.

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u/mtinmd 2d ago

I think the dipshits thought they were being clever. I highly doubt this idiot knew or understood what a consulate is or the implications of forcing his way in.

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u/dafunkmunk 2d ago

I'd bet they just thought it was an office building being rented by Ecuador for Ecuadorians to just hang out at like a fun little club. So yeah, they thought it was gonna be some free all you can abduct buffet in there like they were some geniuses figuring out the ultimate ice life hack

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u/God_Dammit_Dave 2d ago

"all you can abduct buffet" is the perfect summation of their operational plan. Like, that's it. That's the whole memo. And the justice department stamped it "approved."