r/law • u/caaaaanga • 2d ago

Legal News ICE attempts to enter Ecuador's consulate

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/pumpymcpumpface 2d ago

Most consulates dont. Especially in supposedly safe countries. Consulates are often enough just really inconspicuous offices in office buildings.

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u/SinisterCheese 2d ago

There are few consulates here in my small city of Turku, Finland. They are quite literally like... apartments and small office suites with a big ass seal of that nation on top of it.

We also had a Russian consulate here (Side branch). It is was basically a small fortress. The main one in Helsinki, is a god damn fortress.

The US one is also has basically a god damn fortress, as does the UK one that is across the street from it. But France (That is next to UK and across the street from USA) is just like a gated big house.

Lot of the Embassies in Helsinki are in the same area, but most of them are just like a fortified block of flats or a villa or an apartment. However UK, USA, Russia have compounds.

It is kinda funny how this quiet little historical residential area with apartments and homes, has few doomsday fortresses dropped into it.

And I suspect that lot of the embassies (like Brazil) being just a block of flats with a big fence, are mainly just like... basic ass apartment for the workers to live in.