Italian officials protested US plans to deploy some ICE staff at this year’s Winter Olympics, underscoring how the agency’s role in an immigration crackdown at home is stirring opposition overseas.
Speaking on local radio, Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “are not welcome” in his city. He was echoed by Italian opposition leaders including former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte who demanded Italy bar them from entering the country.
An online petition asking Italy to block them at the border got more than 30,000 signatures in a few hours.
Following the protests, the Italian Interior Ministry said an investigative body of ICE will be involved in operations within the US diplomatic offices. “The Home Security Investigation, an investigative body of ICE – therefore not the operational arm of the agency – will be involved together with other agencies, and that their analysts will work exclusively within their diplomatic offices and not on the territory,” according to a statement late Tuesday.
The ICE agents will be in Italy as part of the security details for Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to an official from the US Secret Service. The official asked not to be identified discussing plans that haven’t been made public.
Agents from the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations unit will help the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, and Italian authorities will have control over security operations for the games, which begin Feb. 6.
Including ICE agents in such events would have previously been considered routine. But their presence has become a charged issue given the agency’s leading role in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the US and criticism about federal agents’ killing of two Americans in Minneapolis.
Attilio Fontana, president of Italy’s Lombardy region, played down concerns earlier this week, telling reporters the agents would only be in Italy “in a protective capacity” and “nothing will happen.”
“Relations between law enforcement agencies are well established so we’ll just have extra security,” Fontana said.