What ICE will do at Milan Cortina Olympics?

The Homeland Security Investigations unit will assist the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and Italian authorities in vetting and mitigating risks linked to transnational criminal organizations.

“Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries... All security operations remain under Italian authority,” reads the statement from ICE on X social media post.

The Games are due to open in Milan on February 6 and run through February 22. U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expected to attend the opening ceremony.

Italian officials initially denied ICE involvement and later played down its scope, saying the agents would focus on protecting the U.S. delegation.

Lombardy regional president Attilio Fontana said the role would be defensive and limited to monitoring the visiting U.S. officials, though his office later clarified he had no specific information and was responding to a hypothetical question. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said ICE “as such will never operate in Italy.”

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said ICE was “not welcome” in the city.

“This is a militia that kills. … It’s clear that they are not welcome in Milan. There’s no doubt about it. Can’t we just say no to [U.S. President Donald] Trump for once?” he said in an interview with RTL 102.5 radio.

Alessandro Zan, a member of the European Parliament from Italy’s center left Democratic Party, also condemned the move. In a post on X, he wrote that sending what he called “Trump’s private police force to Italy was unacceptable.”

The criticism is tied to ICE’s actions inside the United States, where thousands of agents have been deployed under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that the operations have sparked widespread protests and outrage following the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this month.