Italians expressed their outrage after it was revealed that the US will send ICE officers to the Winter Olympics. The US says that its agents will go to help support US security operations during the event which begins on 6th of February.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been confirmed by various American departments, sparking anger among Italians.
“This is a militia that kills, of course they’re not welcome in Milan,” the host city’s Mayor Beppe Sala told Italian radio. But other Italian officials took a different approach, with Foreign Minster Antonio Tajani telling reporters that “it’s not like the SS are coming.”
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, in a bid to cool tensions, told reporters “it’s not like the [Nazi] SS are coming”. He said this at a ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, with three Jewish Italians who had survived the genocide being in attendance.
It is not unheard of for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or domestic law enforcement agencies to travel to major international events for additional security support.
“All security operations at the Olympics are directed and managed exclusively by Italian authorities,” DHS said.
Tajani said that no ICE agent would be seen on Italy’s streets, adding that America will set up an operations room at its consulate in Milan where American agencies would be working during the Winter Olympics.
Sources from the American embassy in Rome have already told the Italian press that multiple federal agencies had worked at previous games in the past, though they did not specify if ICE was among them. The role of DHS, which includes ICE, will be “strictly supportive, working with the Diplomatic Security Service and Italian authorities to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations,” according to American officials.
It would “obviously” not conduct immigration enforcement operations outside the US, homeland security department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin confirmed to the BBC.
According to Tajani, the ICE agents who were heading to Italy will not be “those with machine guns and their faces covered,” adding that “they’re coming because it’s the department responsible for counter-terrorism.”
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