The Winter Olympics will begin in Italy on 6 February
The US immigration agency ICE, whose officers were involved in a recent fatal shooting in Minneapolis, has said it will send agents to support American security operations during the Winter Olympics, which begin in Italy on 6 February.
The confirmation that ICE agents would play a role at the Winter Olympics in Italy quickly prompted alarm and anger amongst Italians.
“This is a militia that kills… of course they’re not welcome in Milan,” Milan Mayor Beppe Sala told Italian radio on Tuesday.
In an effort to cool tensions, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told reporters, “it’s not like the [Nazi] SS are coming”.
For context, he was speaking during a ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, attended by three Jewish Italians who survived the Holocaust.
It is common practice for the Department of Homeland Security and domestic law enforcement agencies to provide security support at major international events.
DHS stressed that “all security operations at the Olympics are directed and managed exclusively by Italian authorities”.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Tuesday that no ICE agents will be operating on Italian streets during the Winter Olympics, and that public-order duties will be carried out solely by the Italian police, the Carabinieri military police and the Guardia di Finanza financial authority.
The interior ministry later claimed that the US would set up an operations room at its consulate in Milan, where relevant US agencies would work during the Games.
US embassy sources in the country’s capital had previously explained to Italian media that several federal agencies had worked at previous Games in the past; however, it was not clear if ICE itself had taken part, per the BBC.
Other US officials have said the role of Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of ICE, would remain “strictly supportive, working with the Diplomatic Security Service and Italian authorities to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations”.
It would “obviously” not conduct immigration enforcement operations outside the US, homeland security department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told the BBC.
Antonio Tajani went on to tell reporters that the ICE agents who were coming to Italy were not “those with machine guns and their faces covered… they’re coming because it’s the department responsible for counter-terrorism”.
However, as the situation in Minneapolis continued to escalate, so did the worry in Italy that ICE officers would soon also appear on Italian streets.
An ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good on a Minneapolis street on 7 January, sparking nationwide protests.
Following the shooting of Alex Pretti by U.S. border patrol agents from another Department of Homeland Security agency on Saturday morning, two journalists from Italian public broadcaster Rai said they were threatened by ICE officials while driving around the city to report on the agency’s activities.
According to a Rai TV report, one agent warned the crew that their car window would be smashed if they kept filming the agents.
Lombardy governor Attilio Fontana attempted to ease concerns, saying any ICE presence in Italy would be limited to protecting U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
To add to the controversy, political opponents of right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, including Five Star Senator Barbara Floridia, said the government’s continued silence provides “yet more evidence of cowardice and subservience towards Donald Trump.”
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