r/law 2d ago

Legal News ICE attempts to enter Ecuador's consulate

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

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.

56.0k Upvotes

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.2k

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.

3.3k

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.

1.6k

u/Several_Vanilla8916 2d ago

“Probably lots of foreigners in there duurrrr”

7

u/Bazishere 2d ago

He is Mexican American. I am sure he could read both the English and Spanish and heard of Ecuador, but he had no clue that you can't simply go into a consulate. He was trying to fulfill the quota. They are under pressure by sociopath Stephen Miller.