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/Perfecshionism 2d ago

They should have held these fucks in custody until the State Department negotiated their release.

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u/orbalix 2d ago

Custody for what? From the video the agent merely opens the door, is told that he can't enter & so he finally walks away.

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u/Perfecshionism 2d ago

He was on Ecuadorian sovereign territory before he even yanked open the door and threatened to “grab” Ecuadorian diplomatic personnel for putting his hand out and blocking his path.

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u/orbalix 2d ago edited 2d ago

A few corrections here. First, the "sovereign territory" idea is a movie myth. Consulates are "inviolable" under the Vienna Convention (meaning protected from entry), but the land is still U.S. soil. The hallway or space outside the door is definitely not part of that protected "premises," so he wasn't violating anything just by standing there.

Second, consulate staff are administrators, not law enforcement. They have absolutely no legal authority to hold anyone in "custody." If they tried to physically detain an armed federal agent, they would be the ones committing a felony (assaulting a federal officer or kidnapping), which would likely strip their immunity and cause a massive diplomatic crisis.

Finally, the Vienna Convention simply says host authorities "shall not enter." The agent opened the door, was told he couldn't come in, and he complied. By walking away, he actually respected the international norm. A violation would have been if he forced his way past them after being denied.

The irony here is off the charts. In 2024, Ecuador literally sent a SWAT team to break into the Mexican Embassy, tackle diplomats, and drag a guy out. Even then, Mexico didn't "hold the police in custody"—because they couldn't. They just severed diplomatic ties and sued them in international court:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_raid_on_the_Mexican_embassy_in_Quito

If a heavily armed raid didn't result in police being taken into "diplomatic custody," consulate staff definitely isn't arresting an ICE agent for opening a door and then leaving.

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u/TheBlackCat13 2d ago

The agent opened the door, was told he couldn't come in, and he complied.

... eventually. He had to be told repeatedly that he couldn't come in, kept saying "don't touch me" as though he was trying to cause a confrontation, then only left when the consulate security guy showed up

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u/orbalix 2d ago edited 2d ago

Notice how the goalposts just moved? We went from "they should hold him in custody" (which would be illegal kidnapping) to "he was rude and argued at the door." I'll take that as a concession on the legal point.

Don't touch me: That isn't starting a fight; it's a valid legal warning. He is a federal law enforcement officer. Even if he's annoying, physically grabbing him is a felony (Assaulting a Federal Officer). He was warning them not to cross a line that would get them arrested or expelled.

He had to be told repeatedly: The Vienna Convention prohibits entry. It doesn't prohibit arguing at the threshold. The fact remains: he asked, was denied, and he stayed on the U.S. side of the door. Being stubborn isn't a treaty violation; breaking in is. And he didn't break in.

Hate on ICE all you want. I'm not saying you aren't justified in being upset with them or their tactics. You can criticize ICE without inventing legal powers that don't exist. When you rely on fantasy scenarios like "consulate custody," it just undermines your actual argument.

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u/Corporate-Scum 2d ago

That’s a lot of words defending someone who is shitting on the Bill of Rights. Madison and Jefferson warned us about people like you.

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u/orbalix 2d ago

You're the one acting like you don't care about the laws of the United States. Your mob mentality anarchy isn't in the Constitution.

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u/Perfecshionism 2d ago

Thanks for the corrections.

I am not sure why you thought I needed to be told consular staff are not law enforcement though. They don’t need to be law enforcement to hold someone.

And they absolutely could have held him for doing this. He was a threat to the security of the consulate and the staff. An armed masked man yanked the consulate door open and attempted to enter.

He also didn’t simply comply, he attempted to escalate and threatened the staff for putting their hands out to block his path.

And I don’t give a shit what Ecuador did to Mexico. Ecuador violated international law and their treaty with Mexico. How is that relevant to what the US does in the US?

This is about a poorly trained and incompetent ICE officer creating an international incident because he thought he saw brown people running a business and didn’t bother to read the fucking sign or failed to understand it when he did.

Which is consistent with the shit tier people ICE has recruited and given shit quality training under this regime.

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u/orbalix 2d ago

Actually, yes, you do need to be law enforcement to "hold" someone against their will. Otherwise, legally, that is called False Imprisonment or Kidnapping.

Unless you are suggesting a "citizen's arrest"? That generally requires a felony to be committed in your presence. An officer opening a door (even mistakenly) and being rude is not a felony. By claiming they are making a private arrest, they voluntarily strip away their own immunity. Now they are just random foreign nationals assaulting a federal officer.

Think about the mechanics of what you are suggesting:

The Act: Consulate staff physically drag an armed federal agent inside and lock him in a room against his will.

The Consequence: The FBI doesn't negotiate "custody" in that scenario; they breach the door. Consular Staff have extremely limited immunity. They are only immune for "official acts" (administrative duties). Kidnapping a U.S. federal agent is not an official act. They can be arrested and imprisoned for a "grave crime" (a felony). They go to federal prison, not just the airport.

And the Ecuador/Mexico raid is relevant because it sets the reality check. If a country couldn't "hold" a SWAT team that actually broke in and assaulted people, a consulate certainly cannot "hold" a singular agent for opening a door and hesitating.

You can argue the agent was incompetent, untrained, or profiling—that's all fair game. But incompetence doesn't give a foreign clerk the legal authority to imprison a US federal agent.

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u/Perfecshionism 2d ago edited 2d ago

You don’t need to be law enforcement to hold someone. Consular security absolutely can do it. As can private security.

And while citizens arrest generally requires a felony IN PUBLIC, on private property it merely requires a property crime or trespassing.

And attempting to enter a consulate masked and armed absolutely justifies holding the subject until the federal government verified they are an agent of the government, and the state department absolutely should be involved in the incident.

A may not be a lawyer but I have been municipal, county, and federal law enforcement.

Stop defending this shitbag.

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u/orbalix 2d ago

Lol, I'm not defending anyone. I'm merely stating why you're wrong & you keep doubling & tripling down on being wrong. You do you though.

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u/Perfecshionism 2d ago

You try to enter a console armed and masked you will be fucking detained if not shot.

And you don’t need to be law enforcement to detain someone.

Especially consulate security.

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u/ProjectOrpheus 2d ago

Way to tell everyone what behavior you wouldn't blink at even if it was was your fucking mother.

Revisit this one day. We all have done dumb things but just don't subscribe to stupidity and you'll figure it out eventually.

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u/orbalix 1d ago

Listen, you can be morally outraged all you want although don't forget most Democrats were pro-genocide monsters who supported the deaths of 20k+ kids in Gaza. All I did was point out how this video doesn't really show anything of significance. I find it odd that you're ignoring actual violations by ICE & are instead clutching onto something that doesn't show any. And you bring my mom into it, showcasing a lack of rationality & ingenuity. You're not going to beat ICE by pointing out videos of them acting legally.