ICE agent attempted to enter Ecuador's consulate in Minneapolis, was turned back by employee

On January 27, 2026, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent attempted to enter Ecuador's consulate in Minneapolis and was physically turned back by a consulate employee. Video of the confrontation, verified by Reuters, showed the employee telling the agent, "This is the consulate of Ecuador, you are not allowed to enter," to which the agent replied, "Relax, relax, I didn't enter," before adding, "If you touch me, I will grab you," and leaving. Ecuador's foreign ministry said the attempt occurred around 11 a.m. and that consular officials "immediately prevented the ICE officer from entering the consular headquarters, thus ensuring the protection of the Ecuadorians who were at the consular headquarters at that time."

ICE later said its officers had been pursuing Jorge Miguel Bravo Uriles, an Ecuadorian national with a 2022 DUI conviction and prior arrests for sexual assault and assault, who fled into what the agency described as a building not clearly marked as the consulate; ICE said its officers never entered the consulate and that Bravo Uriles remained at large. International law generally bars a host government from entering another country's consular premises without the consulate's consent, a protection meant to let diplomatic missions operate free of government interference, regardless of the reason an officer is at the door.

Ecuador's foreign minister filed an official note of protest with the U.S. embassy in Quito the same day, asking that "acts of this nature would not be repeated" at any Ecuadorian consulate in the United States. Rep. Gregory Meeks, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the incident "another outrageous and unacceptable disregard for the rule of law" and a breach of diplomatic protocols, warning that entering a foreign diplomatic facility without permission "risks setting a profoundly dangerous precedent that could put American diplomats, servicemembers and their families abroad at risk." The incident occurred amid an ongoing federal immigration-enforcement operation in the Minneapolis area that had already drawn nationwide criticism over the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents earlier in January 2026.