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Navy personnel stand guard in Piazza Duomo forward of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Video games Milan, Italy, on Monday. Brokers from ICE’s Homeland Safety Investigations unit may also be current on the Video games, sparking outrage from some Italian politicians.
Piero Cruciatti/AFP through Getty Photos
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Piero Cruciatti/AFP through Getty Photos
A rising variety of Italian politicians are pushing again towards a plan for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers to assist present safety on the Milan Winter Olympics.
U.S. Homeland Safety officers have supplied help at previous Olympic Video games, however critics together with Milan’s mayor say after the violence in Minneapolis, ICE brokers are not welcome.
“This can be a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the properties of individuals, signing their very own permission slips,” Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala instructed native media. “It’s clear they aren’t welcome in Milan, indubitably.”
It is common for U.S. regulation enforcement and intelligence businesses, together with the Division of Homeland Safety, to play a task at massive worldwide occasions just like the Olympics.
In a press release to NPR, Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin mentioned ICE’s Homeland Safety Investigations unit will help Italian authorities and different U.S. federal businesses working on the Winter Video games.
“Clearly, ICE doesn’t conduct immigration enforcement operations in international international locations,” McLaughlin mentioned. “On the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Safety Investigations is supporting the U.S. Division of State’s Diplomatic Safety Service and host nation to vet and mitigate dangers from transnational felony organizations. All safety operations stay underneath Italian authority.”
Talking with Italian journalists, Italy’s inside minister, Matteo Piantedosi, mentioned it isn’t but clear what U.S. safety personnel can be on the Milan Cortina Video games, however he harassed that “ICE is not going to function on Italian territory.”
“It isn’t just like the SS are about to reach.” – Italian International Minister Antonio Tajani, talking with L’Espresso
Italy’s international minister Antonio Tajani, in the meantime, scrambled to include the controversy, saying that the ICE brokers working in Italy will not be similar to immigration enforcement squads. “It isn’t like these are the [ICE] individuals on the streets of Minneapolis,” Tajani instructed the Italian journal L’Espresso, including, “It isn’t just like the SS are about to reach.”
These reassurances have not happy many Italian politicians. Posting on X, former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte pointed to “road violence and killings” within the U.S. linked to ICE. He urged Italy’s authorities to dam any position for ICE brokers. “We can not permit this,” Conte wrote.
The opening ceremonies for the Milan Video games are per week from Friday, with Vice President Vance and different U.S. officers anticipated to attend.
These Olympics open at a second when tensions between the Trump administration and European allies are working excessive over a variety of points, from tariffs and Greenland to the way forward for NATO and the protection of Ukraine.
NPR correspondent Ruth Sherlock in Rome contributed to this report.
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