{"id":433175,"date":"2026-01-27T17:53:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/433175\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T17:53:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:53:06","slug":"a-militia-that-kills-uproar-in-italy-over-ice-security-role-at-winter-olympics-ice-us-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/433175\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A militia that kills\u2019: uproar in Italy over ICE security role at Winter Olympics | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A unit of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> (ICE) agents will have a security role in the Winter Olympic Games in Italy, sparking uproar and petitions against the deployment.<\/p>\n

Sources at the US embassy in Rome confirmed a statement from ICE, the agency embroiled in a brutal immigration crackdown in the US, saying that federal agents would support diplomatic security details during the Milan-Cortina games but would not run any enforcement operations.<\/p>\n

The statement said: \u201cAt the Olympics, ICE\u2019s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is supporting the US Department of State\u2019s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll security operations remain under Italian authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speculation in Italy<\/a> over ICE\u2019s involvement in the Games, which begin on 6 February, had been brewing for days and mounted further on Monday after the president of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, said on Monday that the US vice-president, JD Vance, and secretary of state, Marco Rubio, would be protected by ICE \u201cbodyguards\u201d at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

The speculation fuelled outrage in Italy over ICE\u2019s immigration operations, especially after the fatal shootings this month of the US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

The daily newspaper La Repubblica claimed<\/a> Italy\u2019s far-right government, which has nurtured friendly relations with Donald Trump\u2019s administration, had briefly looked into blocking the participation of ICE agents in the delegation, but that would have required a departure from how US officials are usually protected during similar high-profile visits abroad.<\/p>\n

Milan\u2019s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, told RTL radio<\/a> that the agents would not be welcome in the city \u201cbecause they don\u2019t guarantee they\u2019re aligned with our democratic security management methods\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a militia that kills,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s clear that they are not welcome in Milan, there\u2019s no doubt about it. Can\u2019t we just say no to Trump for once?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can take care of their security ourselves. We don\u2019t need ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alessandro Zan, a member of the European parliament for the centre-left Democratic party, said the presence of ICE agents would be unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Italy, we don\u2019t want those who trample on human rights and act outside of any democratic control,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Two small opposition parties \u2013 the Green and Left Alliance (AVS) and Azione \u2013 have started petitions calling on the Italian government and the Olympic organising committee to prevent the ICE agents\u2019 entry and involvement in the security operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE is the militia that shoots people on the streets of Minneapolis and takes children away from their families,\u201d AVS said.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the sidelines of a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in Rome, Italy\u2019s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, sought to play down concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like the SS are coming,\u201d he said, referring to the Nazi paramilitary organisation. \u201cLet\u2019s be clear. They\u2019re not coming to maintain public order in the middle of the streets. They\u2019re coming to collaborate in the operations rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The confirmation of ICE\u2019s role comes after RAI state TV aired video of ICE agents threatening to break the window<\/a> of the vehicle its crew were using to report in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A unit of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will have a security role in the Winter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-433175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}