‘It’s not like the SS are coming’: Italy bids to quell ICE furor before Winter Olympics
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government scrambled to contain the fallout Tuesday after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed its agents would assist with security at next month’s Winter Olympics in Italy.
Opposition parties reacted with fury after it emerged that the agency, which has been engulfed in controversy after deportation agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in recent weeks, would be involved in security operations for the Games, due to begin on Feb. 6.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Tuesday that it was “not going to be those that are on the street in Minneapolis.” He added: “I have been harder than anyone else in Italy on [the ICE raids] … but it’s not like the SS are coming,” in reference to the notorious Nazi paramilitary outfit.
U.S. ambassador Tilman Fertitta was scheduled to meet Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi later Tuesday to clarify Olympics plans, Tajani said.
The controversy erupted Monday, when Attilio Fontana, president of Lombardy, one of the northern regions hosting the Games, wrongly suggested that ICE agents would merely assist with the security of U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who are scheduled to attend the opening ceremony at Milan’s San Siro stadium on Feb. 6.
ICE later sought to clarify its role, saying in a statement: “At the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is supporting the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and the host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations. All security operations remain under Italian authority.”
HSI, which maintains a presence in Italy and many other nations, is part of ICE but separate from the subagency that handles deportations domestically in the U.S.
Like other parts of the U.S. federal government, HSI has played a bigger role in supporting the deportations-focused Enforcement and Removal Operations arm of ICE as the Trump administration has ramped up its immigration crackdown, but the agency typically investigates criminal wrongdoing, including child exploitation, human-trafficking and cybercrimes cases.
DHS did not respond to a question clarifying whether new agents would be sent to Milan or Cortina d’Ampezzo, or whether it would only involve agents at the Rome field office.
‘Not welcome’
Meloni has already faced criticism for her defense of U.S. President Donald Trump following his threats to annex Greenland.
“This government is a joke and completely subservient to those like Trump who every day insult us, threaten world peace and justify inhuman and heinous acts such as those committed by ICE,” said Riccardo Ricciardi, an MP for the opposition 5Star Movement.
Alessandro Zan, a member of the European Parliament for the centre-left Democratic Party, condemned it as “unacceptable.”
“In Italy, we don’t want those who trample on human rights and act outside of any democratic control,” he wrote on X.
“If the Italian government needs ICE’s help, it means not only that it has failed on security but that it has embraced a dangerous drift,” said Maria Chiara Gadda, an MP from the centrist Italia Viva party.
Local leaders also joined in. Giuseppe Sala, the left-wing mayor of Milan, which is hosting several Olympic events, told RTL 102.5 radio that ICE was “not welcome.”
“This is a militia that kills… They are not welcome in Milan, there’s no doubt about it,” he said, adding: “Can’t we just say no to Trump for once?”
Public pressure has also grown. Two petitions Tuesday had gathered more than 50,000 signatures calling on the government to block ICE’s entry and operations in Italy.
