Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be deployed at the Italian Winter Olympics next month.
The announcement has been greeted with dismay in Italy, with opposition politicians and civic leaders describing the agency as a violent militia which has committed murder on the streets of the US.
The divisive agency, which is at the forefront of Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign in America, is expected to guard JD Vance, the Vice-President, and Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State.
Confirming the reports, Ice said on Tuesday that it would be supporting US diplomats and Italy “to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations”.
“All security operations remain under Italian authority,” it said, adding: “Obviously, Ice does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries.”
The plan to send US federal agents to the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics has provoked an outcry in Italy, after the fatal shootings of two Americans during Ice’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
“After committing violence and murders in the street in the US, now we learn that ICE agents will be coming to Italy for the Winter Olympics. We cannot allow this. Enough with bowing down [to the Americans], we need to set some limits,” said Giuseppe Conte, a former prime minister who is now leader of the opposition Five Star Movement.
Carlo Calenda, an Italian senator in the centrist party Azione, wrote on social media: “ICE is an unprepared, violent and out-of-control militia. It must not set foot in Italy.”
Italy’s conservative government, led by Giorgia Meloni, who is a close ally of Trump, initially denied reports that Ice would be present at the Games, which start on February 6.
Italian officials then sought to downplay Ice’s role, suggesting they would help only in security for the US delegation.
Attilio Fontana, the president of Italy’s northern Lombardy region, said that Ice agents would be “limited to acting as bodyguards for Vance and Rubio ... to ensure that nothing happens to them”.
Both Rubio and Vance, the rival frontrunners to succeed Trump in 2028, will attend the Games’ opening ceremony.
The event runs until March 15, taking in the Paralympics.
Thousands of Italians have already signed a petition demanding that Ice agents be denied entry to the Olympics, while opposition MPs are calling for Ice personnel to be banned from the country.
While Meloni is regarded as one of Trump’s staunchest allies in Europe, cracks have appeared lately in their relations.
When Trump said last week that Nato troops had shied away from the front lines in Afghanistan, there was fury in Italy, as there was in Britain.
Meloni expressed astonishment at Trump’s comments.
There is already a political backlash in Italy after two journalists from its state broadcaster, Rai, were filmed being threatened by Ice agents in Minneapolis.
Peppe Provenzano, of the centre-left Democratic party, said: “If the Meloni government has any national pride, we ask it to formally protest and distance itself once and for all [from Trump].”
He called it “truly dismaying” watching America “reduced to this state by Trump’s thugs, sowing chaos, terror and death in the streets”.
Ice has been widely criticised over the death of two American citizens in Minneapolis.
Alex Pretti, 37, an intensive care nurse, and Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, were shot dead by federal agents in the city while protesting their aggressive tactics this month.
About 2000 agents were sent to the Democratic city for targeted arrests, raids and investigations related to illegal immigration and suspected fraud.
But the two shootings, of civilians who posed no clear threat, have raised serious concerns about the training and discipline of Ice agents.
Trump is now under pressure from some Republicans and allies, usually sympathetic to the President’s immigration policies, to change course.
In a signal of his pivot, the US President has sacked his hardline border patrol chief, Gregory Bovino, according to sources.
In his place, Trump sent his “border tsar”, Tom Homan, to Minnesota. Homan has been advocating for a more targeted and slower approach to the mass deportation campaign.
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