Staff at Ecuadorthe Ministry of Foreign Affairs blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter the country’s consulate at Minneapolis Tuesday.
The attempted entry prompted Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry to send a “note of protest” to the US embassy in Quito, the Ecuadorian capital, demanding that such incidents “not happen again”, the ministry said in a statement.
The statement referred to the incident as an “attempted incursion into the Ecuadorian consulate in Minneapolis by ICE agents,” Reuters reported, and said staff members took steps to protect the Ecuadorian nationals who were inside the building.
The incident occurred around 11 a.m., the statement said.
Alleged footage of the interaction shows a staff member rushing to the door and confronting masked officers, telling them: “This is the Ecuadorian consulate. You are not allowed in here.”
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In the video, the ICE agent tells the employee, “If you touch me, I’ll catch you.” » The employee responds: “You cannot enter here. This is a consulate. This is foreign government property.”
The video shows the ICE agent leaving shortly afterward.
Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry provided few details, but eyewitnesses working in stores near the consulate told Reuters they saw the immigration officers trying to enter the building.
“I saw the police attacking two people in the street, and then these people entered the consulate and the police tried to chase them,” said one woman, who asked to remain anonymous, citing fear of reprisals from the federal government.
The agents “were unable to enter the consulate, from what I could see.”
The incident occurred during the Trump administration’s massive immigration crackdown in Minnesota, and this happened on the same day that Border Control Commander Greg Bovino was dismissed from office in Minneapolis and replaced by That of American President Donald Trump the border czar, Tom Homan.
Bovino’s dismissal comes days after murder of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti and weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Bonneboth by ICE agents, leading to an escalation of anti-ICE protests across the state.
January 21, 2026: Protesters and ICE agents collide in Minneapolis on January 13, 2026, near where Renee Good was killed.
Elizabeth Flores/Minnesota Star Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire
The former commander claimed that Pretti, 37, who police said was unarmed when he was shot at point-blank range, was trying to “massacre” law enforcement.
Bovino has led numerous immigration crackdowns in major U.S. cities that have sparked mass protests, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Minneapolis.
Under international treaty, a country’s embassies, consular offices, and other diplomatic complexes are considered sovereign territory of that nation, protected by diplomatic immunity from unauthorized entry by agents of other governments.
— With files from Reuters
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
