The U.S. Is Sending an ICE Unit to Assist With Olympic Security. Italian Officials Are Concerned.

Italian officials expressed outrage after learning that the Trump administration is planning to send an Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit to assist with security at the Winter Olympics in Milan.

A series of shootings involving American immigration authorities have made international news over the past month, turning the otherwise routine involvement of Homeland Security Investigations in a major international event like the Olympics into a political lightning rod. HSI is part of ICE but separate from the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, the unit that has been at the forefront of President Donald Trump’s aggressive mass-deportation agenda.

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala issued a fiery statement during an interview on Italian radio this week, calling ICE a dangerous “militia” that he would not allow into his city.

“This is a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the homes of people, signing their own permission slips,” Sala told a local Italian radio station, referencing a recent ICE memo allowing the use of administrative warrants, rather than judicial warrants, to enter homes in the U.S.

“It is clear they are not welcome in Milan, without a doubt,” he added. The city is set to host the Feb. 6 opening ceremony, which Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to attend.

The U.S. ambassador to Italy, Tilman Fertitta, met with Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi on Tuesday morning and confirmed ICE’s presence would only be in a support role, The Associated Press reported. The interior minister later said that the unit of Homeland Security investigators would be stationed at the U.S. Consulate in Milan and provide support for diplomatic security details.

“All of the security operations in the territory remain as always the exclusive responsibility and direction of Italian authorities,’' the Italian Interior Ministry said.

The Olympic Rings are installed in Livigno, Italy. (The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images)

The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday echoed the Italian Interior Ministry, telling the AP in a statement: “Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries.”

“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,” the statement continued. “All security operations remain under Italian authority.”

The matter has polarized Italian politics this week, with the country’s opposition parties increasing calls for Italy’s conservative prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, to publicly condemn the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration tactics.

Meloni, who visited the White House in April, has led a new-generation conservative party in Italy that promotes policies similar to those championed by the Trump administration, including anti-immigration campaigns and a focus on national sovereignty.

In a statement posted to X on Monday, the European Democratic Party said the potential presence of ICE officers in Milan was “a source of deep concern.”

“The Olympic Games should embody openness and trust, not import security models that generate fear,” the post read. “When the Italian Home Secretary says, ‘I don’t see what the problem is’, the problem is clear: the normalisation of practices that run counter to European values and fundamental rights.”

On Tuesday, the European left-wing parliamentary group “The Left in the European Parliament” issued a letter to the leaders of the EU calling for an immediate travel ban on all ICE agents in the light of the recent deaths attributed to federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.

“The human rights situation in the United States is quickly deteriorating, with the establishment of large detention centers, crackdowns on the freedoms of speech and assembly, and a rising number of killings by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement units,” the letter opens.

“Considering reports that ICE agents will be tasked with providing security at the Winter Olympics in Italer later this February, the increased violence and repression of ICE will directly impact European citizens here,” the letter continues. “The European Union must take steps to prevent the entry of such force onto its territory.”

The Parliament’s “Socialists and Democrats Group” said in a post to X that the Trump administration is sending officers “under the pretext of escorting JD Vance and Marco Rubio.”

“Deploying ICE agents on European soil - under the pretext of escorting JD Vance and Marco Rubio at the Milano–Cortina Winter Olympics – is simply unacceptable,” the post read. “We will not tolerate Trump’s repression apparatus to operate in Italy or elsewhere in the EU. The Olympic Games must not become a stage for Trump’s repression apparatus.”