US to send ICE agents to Winter Olympics, prompting Italian anger

U.S. immigration enforcement, whose officers were involved in a deadly shooting in Minneapolis, said it would send agents to support American security operations during the Winter Olympics, which begin Feb. 6 in Italy.

Confirmation that a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will play a role has come from several US ministries after the reports sparked alarm and anger in Italy.

“This is a militia that kills… Of course they are not welcome in Milan,” Milan Mayor Beppe Sala told Italian radio on Tuesday. he said.

In an attempt to calm tensions, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told reporters that “this is not what it used to be.” [Nazi] SS is coming”.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a Holocaust Remembrance Day celebration attended by three Jewish Italian Holocaust survivors.

It is common for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and local law enforcement to provide security support at major international events.

DHS emphasized that “all security operations at the Olympics are directed and managed solely by Italian authorities.”

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Tuesday that no ICE agents will appear on Italian streets, only police, the Carabinieri military police and officers from the Guardia di Finanza financial authority.

The interior ministry later said it would set up an operations room at the US consulate in Milan, where relevant US agencies would work during the Games.

US embassy sources in Rome have told Italian media in the past that various federal agencies have worked at past Games, but it was unclear whether ICE itself was involved.

U.S. officials said the role of Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of ICE, “will be absolutely supportive – working with the Diplomatic Security Service and Italian authorities to examine and mitigate risks from international criminal organizations.”

Homeland security department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told the BBC it would “clearly” not conduct immigration enforcement operations outside the US.

Antonio Tajani told reporters that the arriving ICE agents “were not the ones with machine guns and their faces covered…they became the department responsible for counterterrorism.”

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Pantedosi initially appeared unaware that US immigration officials would come to the Milan-Cortina Olympics, saying that even if they did, foreign delegations could choose their own security, adding: “I don’t understand what the problem is, and that’s quite normal.”

But as shock grew over the images emanating from Minneapolis, so did the outcry in Italy that officers from the same US federal agency might appear on Italian streets.

An ICE agent is fatally shot Renee shot Nicole Good It broke out on a street in Minneapolis on January 7, sparking nationwide protests.

And after Alex Pretti gets shot On Saturday morning, two journalists from the Italian public broadcaster Rai were threatened by ICE officials by U.S. Border Patrol agents from another DHS agency as they traveled around the city to cover the agency’s actions.

The Rai TV report showed that an agent warned the crew that their car windows would be broken if they continued filming the agents.

Attilio Fontana, governor of the Lombardy region, tried to calm the situation by suggesting that ICE agents would be deployed to Italy to protect US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s political opponents, such as Five-Star Senator Barbara Floridia, warned that the government’s continued silence on the issue would provide “further evidence of cowardice and subservience to Donald Trump.”

The interior minister has since taken a stronger stance, asserting on Monday that “ICE will absolutely not operate on Italian national territory.”

He said the United States had not forwarded a list of security personnel and that security was guaranteed by the Italian state.

Milan’s center-left mayor was unimpressed.

“I believe [ICE agents] “They should not come to Italy because they do not guarantee that they comply with our method of ensuring democratic security,” Beppe Sala told RTL radio.