ICE is not welcome in Milan, the city’s mayor has said after the agency announced its officers would accompany the US vice-president to the Winter Olympics in Italy next month.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will reportedly be dispatched to protect JD Vance and Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, while they attend the Games in northern Italy from February 6 to 22.
Their proposed visit has drawn sharp criticism after the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota.
Giuseppe Sala, mayor of Milan
ALESSANDRO BREMEC/NURPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
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Giuseppe Sala, the mayor of Milan, said he did not want ICE agents showing up in his city. “This is a militia that kills,” he said. “It’s clear that they are not welcome in Milan, there’s no doubt about it.”
Sala, who is associated with the left-wing opposition Democratic Party, said: “Can’t we just say no to Trump for once?”
Carlo Calenda, head of the centrist opposition party Azione, said: “ICE is an unprepared, violent and out-of-control militia. It must not set foot in Italy.”
Nicola Fratoianni, head of the Italian Left opposition party, called for ICE “thugs” to be barred from entering the country.
He was backed by Alessandro Zan, an MEP with the Democratic Party, who called on Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, to “stop taking orders from Trump”.
Attilio Fontana, the right-wing president of Italy’s northern Lombardy region, said the agents would be “limited to acting as bodyguards for Vance and Rubio”, but added: “Be careful not to give them a push or something will happen.”
The officers will be from ICE’s homeland security investigations (HSI) unit, which covers the illegal movement of people, cash, contraband, weapons and technology into and out of the US.
In a statement, ICE said: “At the Olympics, 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.”
It added: “All security operations remain under Italian authority. Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries.”