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

The US immigration agency whose officers have been involved in a fatal shooting in Minneapolis has said it is sending agents to help support American security operations during the Winter Olympics, which start in Italy on 6 February.

Confirmation that a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would play a role came from several US departments, after reports prompted alarm and anger in Italy.

“This is a militia that kills… of course they’re not welcome in Milan,” Milan Mayor Beppe Sala told Italian radio on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, in a bid to cool tensions, told reporters “it’s not like the [Nazi] SS are coming”.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, attended by three Jewish Italians who survived the Holocaust.

It is common for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 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 would appear on Italian streets, only officers from the police, the Carabinieri military police and the Guardia di Finanza financial authority.

The interior ministry said later 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 Rome had already explained to Italian media that various federal agencies had worked at previous Games in the past, although it was not clear if ICE had itself taken part.

US officials said the role of Homeland Security Investigations – which is part of ICE – would be “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 told reporters that the ICE agents who were coming were not “those with machine guns and their faces covered… they’re coming become it’s the department responsible for counter-terrorism”.

Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Pantedosi had initially appeared unaware that US immigration officials would be coming to the Milan-Cortina Olympics and said even if they were, foreign delegations could choose their own security, saying: “I don’t see what the problem is and it’s very normal.”

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

An ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good on 7 January in a Minneapolis street, prompting nationwide protests.

And in the aftermath of Alex Pretti being shot by US border patrol agents – from another DHS agency – on Saturday morning, two journalists for Italian public broadcaster Rai were threatened by ICE officials as the reporters drove around the city covering the agency’s actions.

The Rai TV report showed one agent warned the crew that if they kept filming the agents, their car window would be smashed.

The governor of Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, sought to calm the situation, suggesting that ICE agents would be deployed in 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, warned that continued government silence on the issue would provide “yet more evidence of cowardice and subservience towards Donald Trump”.

The interior minister has since taken a stronger stand, maintaining on Monday that “ICE will certainly not operate on Italian national territory”.

The US had not communicated a list of security personnel, and security was guaranteed by the Italian state, he said.

The centre-left mayor of Milan was unimpressed.

“I believe [ICE agents] shouldn’t come to Italy because they don’t guarantee they conform to our democratic way of ensuring security,” Beppe Sala told RTL radio.