ICE a ‘militia’, says Milan mayor as agency sends agents to Winter Olympics
The mayor of Winter Olympics host city Milan has called US ICE agents being sent to the Games part of a “militia” that is “not welcome”.
The US immigration agency, which has been at the centre of two fatal shootings in Minneapolis in recent weeks, is sending agents to the Winter Olympics to support American security operations.
But the mayor of Milan, Beppe Sala, who will be at next Friday’s opening ceremony, said that the organisation was “a militia that kills… of course they’re not welcome in Milan”.
The centre-left city leader added: “I believe [ICE agents] shouldn’t come to Italy because they don’t guarantee they conform to our democratic way of ensuring security.”
ICE has said that it would “obviously” not carry out immigration operations on Italian soil.
ICE at Winter Olympics
The Milan-Cortina Olympics begin next Friday, with Team GB hoping for their best ever Winter Games. The presence of ICE, according to the governor of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, is to protect US Vice President JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio, who will be in attendance.
But the potential presence of ICE around Milan has caused outrage across Italy, with one political party stating that: “ICE is the militia that shoots people on the streets of Minneapolis and takes children away from their families.”
The agency said that “ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is supporting the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations.”
“All security operations remain under Italian authority,” ICE added.
European parliament member Alessandro Zan said: “In Italy, we don’t want those who trample on human rights and act outside of any democratic control.”
The United States finished third during the last Winter Olympics, in Beijing in 2022, behind Norway and Germany, while Italy was 13th out of 29 medalling nations.