Italian Leaders Are Upset US Is Sending ICE To Assist Security At Winter Olympics, And For Good Reason

The Trump administration has directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to bolster U.S. security at the 2026 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Milan and Cortina, Italy, next month — and many Italians are angry about it.

They’re so angry, in fact, that officials in both nations are scrambling to assure the public that the federal agents being sent to Italy aren’t there to conduct immigration enforcement, and they’re certainly not there to be the menaces they have gotten a reputation for being in the States.

From CNN:

Current and former lawmakers have urged Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to intervene to block the agents’ presence in the wake of two fatal shootings during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed the reports in a statement to CNN on Tuesday.

ICE will serve “a security role” at the Olympics, a DHS spokesperson said. “They don’t do immigration enforcement (operations) in a foreign country obviously,” the spokesperson said.

Ahh, yes — “obviously,” the U.S. isn’t sending federal agents to a foreign country to enforce immigration laws in a nation it has no authority in. I mean, come on, it’s not like the U.S. is out here kidnapping the presidents of sovereign nations and boasting about being an authoritarian “superpower” while our own president needs to be shamed by world leaders out of taking over Greenland on a whim.

Seriously, if it’s so obvious that the Trump administration isn’t sending ICE to Italy to deport people, it should be equally obvious that sending the agents there is inappropriate and — under the current scrutiny caused by the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti — just bad optics.

Anyway, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin also told CNN that ICE will only be “supporting” the U.S. diplomatic security service at the Games, and that “all security operations remain under Italian authority.” Of course, she still made the operation sound like something for the U.S. and by the U.S., which mentioned the authorities in Italy as an afterthought.

“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,” McLaughlin said.

Italian officials, of course, are also trying to keep critics calm.

More from CNN:

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi met with US Ambassador Tilman Fertitta on Tuesday, according to the Interior Ministry, which confirmed that ICE’s investigative arm, not the operational arm, will be present at the Milan-Cortina Olympics. “The agency will work exclusively within their diplomatic missions and not on the ground,” the ministry said in a social media post.

“It is important to reiterate that Homeland Security Investigation investigators will not be represented by operational personnel like those engaged in immigration controls in the US, but by representatives exclusively specialized in investigations,” the ministry added.

All I’m saying is that some people might interpret that ministry statement as a reassurance to Italians that the roving bands of volatile agents they’ve seen bully-footing their way through major cities in the U.S. won’t be doing that in Italy.

In fact, Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, pretty much said just that during a Tuesday interview with Italian radio station RAI.

“It’s not like they’re the ones on the streets of Minneapolis,” Tajani said of the agents. “It’s not like the SS are coming.”

Meanwhile,  former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is being far more direct about his opposition to ICE’s presence at the Games, urging the Italian government to “set our own limits” and “make clear decisions.”

“After street violence and murders in the US, we now learn from their spokesperson that ICE agents will come to Italy to ensure security at the Milan-Cortina Olympics,” Conte wrote. “We cannot allow this. Our government tried to downplay the situation, but these latest statements speak clearly of ICE’s determination to come and ensure ‘security’ in Italy as well. Enough with the bowing.”

Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, also said flat-out that ICE agents “are not welcome” in his city.

Now, to be clear, federal agencies, including Homeland Security Investigations, supporting U.S. diplomats at the Olympics is nothing new. It hasn’t been much of an issue in the past because, in the past, the U.S. wasn’t being run by a 79-year-old toddler-in-tyranny, who is turning the world against his nation, and U.S. federal agents weren’t making international headlines for turning American cities into deadly battlefields.

Remember when MAGA praised Donald Trump as the president who would bring the world together?

Yeah — about that…

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