US to send ICE agents to Winter Olympics, angering Italians

The U.S. immigration agency, whose agents were involved in two fatal shootings in Minneapolis, announced it will send agents to help support U.S. security operations during the Winter Olympics, which begin in Italy on Feb. 6.

Confirmation of the agency’s role came from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after reports sparked concern and anger in Italy.

“It’s a militia that kills… of course they are not welcome in Milan,” the city’s mayor, Beppe Sala, told Italian radio on Tuesday.

An ICE spokesperson stressed that “all security operations remain under Italian authority.”

Sources at the U.S. Embassy in Rome previously told Italian media that various federal agencies had worked at previous Games in the past, although it was unclear whether customs and law enforcement agencies had participated themselves.

The agency’s statement Tuesday explains that “ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) supports the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and the host nation in monitoring and mitigating risks associated with transnational criminal organizations.”

He would “obviously” not conduct immigration enforcement operations outside the United States, he added.

The statement was provided to the AFP news agency and corroborated by embassy sources to the Associated Press. The BBC has also contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

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

But as shock over the images emanating from Minneapolis grew, so did the outcry in Italy that agents from the same U.S. federal agency could appear on Italian streets.

After Alex Pretti was shot and killed in the streets of Minneapolis by federal agents Saturday morning, two journalists from Italian public broadcaster Rai were threatened by ICE officials as they traveled the city to cover the agency’s actions.

The Rai TV report showed that an officer warned the team that if they continued filming the officers, their car window would be broken.

The governor of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, sought 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.

Political opponents of right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, such as five-star senator Barbara Floridia, have warned that the government’s continued silence on the issue would provide “further evidence of cowardice and servitude to Donald Trump.”

The interior minister has since taken a firmer stance, saying on Monday that “ICE will certainly not operate on Italian national territory.”

The United States has not released a list of security personnel and security is guaranteed by the Italian state, he said.

The center-left mayor of Milan was not impressed.

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