In a few days, thousands of top athletes, as well as security and delegates from their respective countries from around the world will be congregating in Milan, Italy, for this year’s Winter Olympics, including Team USA.
Set to be traveling to Milan alongside Team USA and the nation’s delegates as security 一 including V.P. JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio 一 are ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division, along with the customary U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service. This type of overseas operation is apparently not new, as it has been reported that ICE has been used for additional security at past Olympics.
The announcement from this past weekend immediately drew criticism and backlash from Italian officials and citizens, as Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, has even come out and said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not welcome in the city “without a doubt,” according to FRANCE 24.
Reuters and NPR also reported that Sala referred to ICE as “a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the homes of people, signing their own permission slips.” Such sentiments are becoming harder and harder for the administration to deny as the days go by, as people have been killed or abducted by ICE from their homes or cars, since the beginning of Trump’s second term.
Not only is news of their arrival in Milan being rightly criticized for all of their past and ongoing operations here in the United States, but many of those outside of the U.S. weren’t even aware beforehand that ICE consistently operates internationally, with numerous HSI offices in 50 other countries.
HSI’s role as additional security at the Winter Olympics will reportedly not include any policing or immigration operations, according to a post to the official Department of Homeland Security (DHS) account on X, but will instead be providing intelligence support behind the scenes.
The post, quoting a recent article from Variety, reads: “Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries. 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. All security operations remain under Italian authority.”
Athletes and sports franchises from around the country have come out to denounce the brutality being brought to Minnesota and other states by ICE and Kristi Noem’s DHS. Doc Rivers, coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, and Steve Kerr, Team USA’s head basketball coach, have called out the blatant murder of Renee Good.
Members of Team USA’s women’s hockey team and PWHL players for the Minnesota Frost also denounced what is happening in their state, publicly sharing their support and respect for those who are standing up for their state in response to ICE’s military presence.
WIth both domestic and international outcry at the violence being wrought by ICE, it remains to be seen whether the agency’s security duties will be curtailed by spectators and the Italian government, both local to Milan, the other host cities, and nationally.