President Trump’s masked ICE goons have sparked fresh embarrassment for his administration after they attempted to gain access to Ecuador’s consulate in Minneapolis.
Video footage shared on social media shows at least two ICE agents trying to walk into Ecuador’s diplomatic headquarters on Tuesday morning before being stopped by consulate officials.
“Eh, eh, eh, eh, this is a consulate! This is foreign government property, you are not allowed in here!” a consulate official can be heard shouting at the agents at the door. One masked agent can be heard yelling back: “If you touch me, I will grab you.”
Ecuador’s foreign affairs ministry said it “immediately” sent a “note of protest” to the U.S. Embassy in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito following the attempted incursion, demanding that such incidents “not be repeated” at any of Ecuador’s consular offices in America.
A country’s embassies, consulates, and other diplomatic buildings are considered part of that nation’s sovereign territory. Law enforcement is generally prohibited from entering foreign consulates or embassies without permission, except in extreme circumstances such as fires or other emergencies.
Minneapolis City Council President Elliott Payne said he spoke with Ecuador’s ambassador, who believed ICE agents may have mistakenly attempted to enter the building, according to The Washington Post.
Payne added that ICE agents also entered a nearby coffee shop, which has become a popular gathering spot for protesters, and threatened patrons, telling them, “We’re going to be back and arrest you all.”
Trump is already facing intense criticism over ICE’s aggressive behavior as agents carry out the president’s hardline deportation policies in Minnesota. The backlash intensified after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis.
Weeks later, ICU nurse Alex Pretti was also shot and killed by federal agents in the city. In both cases, senior Trump administration officials attempted to portray the victims as “domestic terrorists” who were trying to harm or kill law enforcement, even as these claims were directly contradicted by video evidence.
Footage shows Good trying to pull away from ICE agents who had surrounded her vehicle before Ross fired at point-blank range. Videos also show that Pretti never attempted to attack law enforcement, and that a handgun he was legally allowed to carry had been confiscated from his waistband before he was shot multiple times.
There have been growing calls for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem to be fired or impeached for immediately labeling both Good and Pretti “domestic terrorists,” as well as falsely suggesting that Pretti had brandished his firearm at federal agents.
Noem has since blamed the language she used— including claiming Pretti wanted to “massacre” immigration agents—on White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen,” Noem told a source, according to Axios.
Miller, the architect of Trump’s most hardline immigration policies, has also been condemned for accusing Pretti of being a “would-be assassin.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
