A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent has reportedly tried to enter the Ecuadorean consulate in Minneapolis, US, sparking a diplomatic incident.

Despite Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, is a major ally of Trump. Less than three months ago, both presidents were making a deal to deepen their countries’ commercial and economic ties.

Nevertheless, Ecuador immediately filed an official letter of protest with the US embassy in Quito after the Minneapolis incident.

‘If you touch me, I’ll grab you’

Ecuador’s foreign ministry stated that the ICE agent “tried to enter the premises of the consulate” at 11:00 (local time) on Tuesday 27 January. The statement also reported that consulate officials stopped the agent in their tracks, acting:

to guarantee the protection of the Ecuadoreans who were inside the consulate at the time

It’s important to note that the US agent’s attempt to enter the consulate was a major violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Under this accord, consular premises are held to be “inviolable”. This means that the authorities of the consulate’s host country can’t enter it:

except with the consent of the head of the consular post.

Of course, the Ecuadorean officials reported that they gave no such consent.

A BBC article on the incident also reported on a video which had been shared across Ecuadorean media. It stated that:

a consular official can be seen rushing to the entrance door and telling an ICE agent “this is the consulate, you’re not allowed in here”.

The agent tells the official that “if you touch me, I will grab you”.

The consular official then states again that “you can not enter here, this is a consulate, this is a foreign government’s office”, before closing the door.

Is this how ICE de-escalates?

The incident at the Ecuadorean consulate could not have come at a worse time for ICE or Trump himself.

On 7 January, an ICE agent murdered 37-year-old Renee Good in broad daylight on the streets of Minnesota. Trump and US officials attempted to characterise the cold-blooded shooting as ‘self-defence’, in spite of clear video evidence to the contrary.

Then, on 24 January, another ICE agent murdered nurse Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis road. Officials tried to claim that Pretti was armed, despite an agent having removed the legal firearm from its holster before Pretti was shot multiple times in the back.

Thus far, eight people have died in contact with ICE in 2026 alone. Most died in detention centers whilst under the custody of the US agency.

As such, it’s unsurprising that thousands of protesters braved sub-zero temperatures on the streets of Minneapolis last week to voice their opposition to the Trump regime and its murderous ICE enforcers.

Then, on 27 January, Trump made public claims that immigration enforcement would “de-escalate a little bit” in Minnesota. However, given that this was the very same day that an ICE agent tried to enter the Ecuadorean consulate, you’ll have to forgive us if we don’t take the lying snake-in-the-White-House at his word.

Featured image via the Canary