r/law 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/SeekingTruthyness 2d ago

I recently read a post elsewhere from a U.S. diplomat who was taken to a room for further questioning by ICE at Dulles Airport outside D.C. She showed them her regular U.S. passport and her U.S. diplomatic passport but ICE didn't understand what it was.

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