With lower than every week to go till the beginning of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy, the subject making headlines isn’t sports activities. It’s safety. For days, the Italian authorities, the town of Milan, embassies, and consulates have been making an attempt to reply to public outcry following stories in regards to the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the Video games because the company sows chaos, violence, and death within the US.
Final week, the US Division of Homeland Safety confirmed to The New York Times that ICE would accompany a US delegation to the Video games. They’d, in response to a press release attributed to DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin, be working with a State Division crew “to vet and mitigate dangers from transnational felony organizations” and to not conduct immigration enforcement.
US officers declare such safety measures are widespread for the Video games and careworn that Italy could be in control of safety. Nonetheless, following the current taking pictures deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good by the hands of US immigration brokers, Italians had been upset over ICE’s presence. Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, went as far as to inform a neighborhood radio station that brokers had been “not welcome” within the metropolis.
Different Italian officers weren’t as unequivocal. Italy’s inside minister, Matteo Piantedosi, claimed he knew nothing about ICE’s presence in Milan however careworn that he noticed nothing flawed with it. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a frequent Trump ally, has to this point remained silent.
On Saturday, hundreds gathered in Milan’s Piazza XXV Aprile to protest ICE’s presence on the Video games, carrying indicators studying “No ICE in Milano” and “ICE Out Now.”
ICE received’t be working with Italian regulation enforcement, which has promised to have greater than 6,000 personnel on the occasions, however will as a substitute be working to guard the US contingent, which incorporates Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Put one other means, they’re prone to be suit-and-tie ICE operatives, not brokers in masks and military gear.
ICE isn’t the one controversial safety pressure in Italy for the Olympics. On January 27, a cargo airplane with greater than 100 Qatari public safety officers, 20 camouflage SUVs, and three snowmobiles landed at Milan’s Malpensa Airport. Following their arrival, the SUVs made their option to the town middle, driving previous Piazza Duomo and San Siro, the place the opening ceremony can be held on Friday.
