President Donald Trump’s administration has sparked outrage over a secret plot to send ICE agents to provide security to the U.S. delegation at the Winter Olympics next month.
Italian government officials originally denied, then confirmed, then denied again a Saturday report from the left-leaning Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano that ICE would support local law enforcement at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics from Feb. 6 to March 15.
The plan comes after an ICE agent shot and killed Minneapolis mother of three Renee Nicole Good and a Border Patrol officer shot and killed Veterans Affairs nurse Alex Pretti, both 37. ICE has instructed its agents to break into homes without warrants, stopped off-duty police officers of color, and arrested a 5-year-old boy.
The Italian newspaper report has led to anger, confusion, petitions, and demands that Trump’s “thugs” not be allowed to set foot in Italy.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed that ICE would be assisting Italy during the Olympic Games.
“Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries,” McLaughlin said. “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.”
Originally Italy’s conservative government, which is led by Trump’s close ally Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, denied knowing anything about ICE’s involvement in the Olympic Games.
“We are not aware of that at this stage,” Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told reporters Sunday, adding that even if it were true, it’s normal for Olympic delegations to choose their own security.
Then on Monday, Attilio Fontana, president of the region of Lombardy where Milan is located, told reporters that ICE would be part of Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s security team.
The two 2028 rivals will represent the U.S. at the games’ opening ceremony on Feb. 6 at Milan’s San Siro stadium.
“It’s a whole other issue that doesn’t concern our country,” Fontana insisted, saying that ICE’s mission would be limited to protecting Vance and Rubio.
“I’m convinced nothing will happen,” he added.
Soon after, though, the region of Lombardy released a statement saying Fontana had not confirmed ICE’s presence at Olympic events and was only speaking hypothetically.
The Interior Ministry also released a statement denying that ICE would operate in Italy.
“To date, no collaboration agreements have been signed for the Olympics,” ministry sources told La Repubblica, the country’s largest daily newspaper.
The back-and-forth comes as thousands of people have signed a Change.org petition demanding that ICE agents be denied entry to the Olympics, while opposition lawmakers have called for ICE to be kept out of Italy entirely.
Democratic Party Sen. Francesco Boccia told La Repubblica that the prospect of ICE agents in Italy was “disturbing.”
Other members of Parliament described ICE as a lawless militia.
“ICE is an unprepared, violent, and out-of-control militia,” Italian Senator Carlo Calenda wrote on Facebook, “It must not set foot in Italy.”
Italian Member of Parliament Nicola Fratoianni, a progressive member of the House of Deputies, also demanded that Trump’s “thugs” be denied entry to Italy.
“We cannot allow heavily armed murderers, who have also threatened Italian journalists, to act as law enforcement on Italian soil, without knowing how and where they should operate, with what powers or jurisdiction,” Fratoianni said in a statement.
On Sunday, ICE agents reportedly threatened an Italian journalist with the state broadcaster RAI who was doing a segment in Minneapolis.
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