Key events
Ecuador says ICE agent attempted to enter its consulate in Minneapolis
The Ecuadorian government has said that a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent attempted to enter its Minneapolis consulate on Tuesday, but was prevented from coming in by staff working at the building.
This has prompted Ecuador’s government to send a formal protest note to US authorities “so that acts of this nature are not repeated at any of Ecuador’s consular offices in the United States.”
Videos circulating on social media appear to show a consulate staffer running to the door to turn the ICE agents away, telling them, “This is the Ecuadorian consulate. You’re not allowed to enter.”
Under international law, law enforcement authorities are prohibited from entering foreign consulates or embassies without permission. However, sometimes permission may be assumed granted for life-threatening emergencies, like fires.
The Guardian has reached out to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment.
Welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
While Donald Trump suggested he would “de-escalate” operations in Minneapolis, congresswoman Ilhan Omar was attacked and sprayed with an unknown substance at a town hall event in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening – where she was calling for the abolition of ICE “for good”.
A man lunged toward her with a syringe and sprayed the politician, before security tackled him to the ground. The alleged attacker, who has been identified as a 55-year-old Minneapolis resident, has been arrested and charged with third-degree assault. Jail records identified the man as Anthony James Kazmierczak.
Omar stepped toward the attacker before returning to the podium to say: “Here’s the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand: We are Minnesota strong. And we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw on us.”
Omar, who was not injured in the attack, later posted on social media that she was OK, adding: “I don’t let bullies win. Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me.”
Hours before the attack on Omar, president Donald Trump criticised the congresswoman as he spoke to a crowd in Iowa, where he said his administration would only let in immigrants who “can show that they love our country.”
“They have to be proud, not like Ilhan Omar,” he said. The crowd responded with a booing sound as he mentioned her name.
He added: “She comes from a country that’s a disaster. So probably, it’s considered, I think – it’s not even a country.”
Omar and her family escaped civil war in Somalia when she was eight years old, and sought asylum in the United States after years in a refugee camp in Kenya. She is a US citizen.
There have been days of protest and international outcry over the Saturday shooting of 37-year-old VA nurse Alex Pretti, the second fatal shooting of a US civilian by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis.
The White House is also evaluating whether federal agents who gunned down a nurse may have failed to follow “clear guidance” to “create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors”, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told AFP.
The White House later said that Miller was referring to “general guidance” to immigration agents operating in the state, rather than the specific incident in which Pretti was killed.
Trump told Fox News “we’re going to de-escalate a little bit,” while adding that it was not a “pullback.”
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