US to send ICE agents to Winter Olympics, prompting Italian anger - Yahoo News Canada
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Paul Kirby - Europe digital editorTue, January 27, 2026 at 2:33 p.m. UTC3 min readAdd Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.
The US immigration agency whose officers have been involved in two fatal shootings 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 of the agency's role came from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after reports prompted alarm and anger in Italy.
"This is a militia that kills... of course they're 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".
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 the customs and enforcement agency had itself taken part.
The agency's statement on Tuesday explained that "ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is supporting the US Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations".
It would "obviously" not conduct immigration enforcement operations outside the US, it said.
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.
In the aftermath of Alex Pretti being shot on the streets of Minneapolis by federal agents 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.
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When will it be too much?
trump is attempting to mainstream his gestapo world wide ...
“It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” -trump retweeting a Mussolini quote…
…kindred spirits.
on the plus side for the subhuman maga scumbags that now populate ICE, it should be a lot easier for them to spot those nonwhite illegal immigrants against the winter backgrounds ... /s
mussolini was hitler's idol too ...
with the trump administration's assaults on the the 1st, 2nd, and 4th amendments, we're already there ...
its one thing after another
It's certainly NOT about cutting government waste and abuse.
So is the Secret Service not up to the job we pay them to do?
Tom Homan couldn't get a motel room anyway else...
the secret service was compromised on J6 ...
Fuori ICE!
It's a misnomer, IMHO. They send HSI, the very people who train and work along side the Secret Service and the Diplomatic Security people.
It's unfair to schmear the whole DHS organization with the broad stench of ICE employees.
I think Kristi Noem has caused DHS as a whole to be discredited. No doubt many DHS employees would love to see her gone.
I saw a statement from Homan or Scott that the performative press conferences are done, as is the social media presence of DHS, HSI and ICE.
Going forward they are falling back on decades of training to minimize disruptions.
Meanwhile Krafty Gnome is echoing the Nuremburg trials " we only did what the President ordered us to do".
If so, she will be fired. The buck does not stop with Trump ... ever.
IMO deservedly so. Will they go to Canada as well for the World Cup games?