US ICE agents going to Winter Olympics sparks anger in Italy

By Crispian Balmer and Alvise Armellini

ROME, Jan 27 (Reuters) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel will help protect U.S. delegations at next month’s Winter Olympics in Italy, causing a political uproar in the country.

ICE and Border Patrol agents have come under heavy criticism over their enforcement of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown after they shot and killed two U.S. citizens in separate incidents this month in Minnesota.

ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division will back up the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service at the February 6-22 Milano Cortina Olympics, the Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X.

The ICE agents’ role will be “to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations,” the post added, noting “all security operations remain under Italian authority.” 

“Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries,” said DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

HISTORY OF ICE DEPLOYMENTS

ICE has been present at major sports events in both the U.S. and abroad in the past, including previous Olympic Games, as part of international partnerships related to human trafficking and drug trafficking, said Jason Houser, who served as ICE chief of staff under former President Joe Biden.

Despite assurances that there is nothing unusual about the deployment, Italian politicians strongly criticised the presence of ICE agents in the country, highlighting how the image of the United States has been tarnished in recent months.

“It seems sheer idiocy to me,” Maurizio Lupi, leader of a small centrist party in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s governing coalition, told la Repubblica daily. 

Giuseppe Sala, the left-leaning mayor of Milan, one of the cities co-hosting the Olympics, called ICE “a militia that kills”. Speaking to RTL 102.5 radio, Sala said: “It’s clear that they’re not welcome in Milan, there’s no doubt about it.”

The Rome government sought to defuse the protests. The interior ministry said in a statement that ICE personnel would only work in U.S. diplomatic offices such as the Milan consulate, and “not on the ground” enforcing order.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said he met with U.S. Ambassador Tilman Fertitta. Piantedosi said he would address parliament on February 4. The U.S. embassy in Italy declined to comment.

‘IT’S NOT AS IF THE SS ARE ARRIVING’, MINISTER SAYS

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called for a measured response. “We’re not talking about the (ICE people) who were out on the streets of Minneapolis… It’s not as if the (Nazi) SS are arriving,” he told reporters at a Holocaust memorial event.

A State Department spokesperson said that, as in past Olympics, multiple federal agencies would help with security, including ICE.

But Italia Viva, a centrist Italian opposition party led by former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, said agents affiliated with ICE did not represent Italian values and should be barred entry.

The hard-left USB trade union said it would hold an “ICE OUT” rally in central Milan on February 6, to coincide with the Olympic opening ceremony.

(Additional reporting by Ted Hesson, Brad Heath and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington and Gavin Jones in RomeEditing by Gareth Jones and Lisa Shumaker)