Following reports that the United States’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would have a presence at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed some ICE agents would be in Italy for diplomatic security.
ICE will not be working in an immigration or customs capacity for the Olympics. Rather, a sub-unit within ICE called Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) will serve as part of the security detail for Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio when they attend the opening ceremony.
“Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries,” Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary for Homeland Security, said in a statement Tuesday. “At the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations is supporting the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations.
“All security operations remain under Italian authority.”
ICE has come under fire for its handling of President Donald Trump’s immigration and border control agenda, most recently in Minneapolis. Minnesota citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by ICE agents, video of which has been circulated around the globe.
The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, has opposed ICE attending the Games in any capacity and called it a “private police force” of the United States government.
“This is a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the homes of people, signing their own permission slips,” Sala told RTL Radio 102 Tuesday, before the nature of ICE’s involvement in the Games was confirmed. “It is clear they are not welcome in Milan, without a doubt.”
Milan will be the site of the opening ceremony, hockey and skating events.
The president of Lombardy, the administrative region of Italy that includes Milan, did not voice concern about ICE’s presence.
“ICE will only be here to watch over U.S. Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio,” Attilio Fontana told the Italian news agency ANSA on Monday. “So it will only be in a defensive measure. I am convinced that nothing will happen.”
Fontana’s office later said his response was to a hypothetical question and that he didn’t have specific information about ICE’s planned presence in Italy during the Games, per Italian media reports.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee told NBC News in a statement that rumors of ICE providing security for American athletes in Italy were “not true.”
Trump himself is not expected to attend the Games.
–Field Level Media
