Ecuadorian consulate in Minneapolis says ICE agents tried to enter and were turned away

The Consulate of Ecuador in Minneapolis says a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent attempted to enter its premises late Tuesday morning.

Officials prevented the officer's entry and activated emergency protocols issued by the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Human Mobility, according to the consulate.

The consulate says the Foreign Minister of the Republic "immediately presented a note of protest to the United States Embassy in Ecuador so that acts of this nature are not repeated in any of the consular offices of Ecuador in the United States."

The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, a United Nations treaty signed in 1963, prohibits U.S. authorities from entering a consulate without the permission of its head, except in circumstances of disaster.

WCCO has reached out to ICE and the consulate.

An apparent video of the exchange, which WCCO is attempting to verify, shows a consular employee telling the agents they are not allowed to enter. One ICE agent can be heard threatening to "grab" the employee.

The consulate is located on Central Avenue in northeast Minneapolis, blocks from where ICE recently took two Ecuadorian men. A woman named Jenny, who identified the men as her husband and cousin, said she pleaded with the agents to deport her and her young daughter, too. It's unclear why the agents did not take Jenny, who said she and the man are all undocumented, or her daughter. WCCO has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for more information.

"I was asking them to deport me because I don't want to be left alone with my daughter," Jenny said. "I don't have a job — only my husband does — and now I don't know what we're going to do."