{"id":441221,"date":"2026-01-31T17:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T17:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/441221\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T17:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T17:12:10","slug":"demonstrators-in-milan-protest-ice-unit-at-winter-olympics-criticizing-creeping-fascism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/441221\/","title":{"rendered":"Demonstrators in Milan protest ICE unit at Winter Olympics, criticizing ‘creeping fascism’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN — Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Saturday in Milan to protest the deployment of ICE agents during the upcoming Winter Olympics<\/a>, unbothered by the fact that agents would be stationed in a control room and not operating on the streets.<\/p>\n

The protest in Piazza XXV Aprile, a square named for the date of Italy\u2019s liberation from Nazi fascism in 1945, drew people from the left-leaning Democratic Party, the CGIL trade union confederation and the ANPI organizations that protect the memory of Italy\u2019s partisan resistance during World War II, along with many other people.<\/p>\n

Organizers handed out plastic whistles, which participants blew as music blared from a van. The protest was as much against the news that agents from a division of ICE would participate<\/a> in security for the U.S. delegation as against what many saw as creeping fascism in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo thank you, from Minnesota<\/a> to the world, at the side of anyone who fights for human rights,\u2019\u2019 read one banner. \u201cNever again means never again for anyone,\u2019\u2019 read another, and \u201cIce only in Spritz,\u2019\u2019 a reference to a popular aperitif, read yet another.<\/p>\n

News of the deployment of ICE agents has provoked a backlash in Italy. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala has said they were not welcome. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi has been called to Parliament to testify about the deployment this week.<\/p>\n

Protester Silvana Grassi held a sign that read \u201cIce = Gestapo.\u201d She said the scenes of ICE agents in Minneapolis shooting and killing protesters and detaining children were deeply upsetting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me want to cry to think of it,\u2019\u2019 Grassi said. \u201cIt\u2019s too terrible. How did they elect such a terrible, evil man?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The ICE agents to be deployed to Milan are not from the same unit as the immigration agents cracking down in Minnesota and other U.S. cities.<\/p>\n

Homeland Security Investigations, a ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown<\/a> in the U.S. is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers are being sent to Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if it\u2019s not the same ones, we don\u2019t want them here,\u2019\u2019 Grassi said.<\/p>\n

Paolo Bortoletto, also holding a banner, was aware that the officers would have an investigative and not a street role.<\/p>\n

Still, he said, \u201cWe don\u2019t want them in our country. We are a peaceful country. We don\u2019t want fascists. It\u2019s their ideas that bother us.”<\/p>\n

The Olympics begin Feb. 6 with an opening ceremony that will be attended by U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN — Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Saturday in Milan to protest the deployment of ICE agents during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[207959,190960,23,966,793,3,111,3775,99,21,19,22,20,25,24,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-441221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-207959","9":"tag-2026-milan-cortina-olympic-games","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-article","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa","23":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441221","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=441221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}