The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will accompany the U.S. delegation to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, scheduled for February 6–22. DHS said ICE agents from the Homeland Security Investigations unit will join State Department security teams to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations involved in human smuggling, fentanyl trafficking, and other cross-border crimes.
The arrangement follows past Olympic security practices, with multiple U.S. federal agencies supporting diplomatic security for American delegations abroad. These efforts are typically led by the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, which coordinates with other federal agencies, including DHS components, as needed.
U.S. officials emphasized that all security operations will remain under Italian authority and that ICE will not conduct immigration enforcement abroad. They added that the agents will operate primarily from the U.S. consulate in Milan rather than on the streets or at Olympic venues.
I watch Italian TV news every day and can confirm that it is extremely left-wing, portraying ICE in a negative light with coverage favoring the anti-ICE rioters in Minnesota. Italian broadcasters routinely run the breaking-news version of every controversial story, even though the initial report is almost always debunked or substantially corrected in later reporting.
As a result, many Italians believe that As a result, many Italians believe that Kilmar Ábrego García, a U.S. citizen, was wrongfully deported, that ICE kidnapped a five-year-old and used him as bait to arrest his father, and that both of the recent ICE-related shootings were murder. On Telegiornale La7 they even used the phrase “cold-blooded murder” to describe the death of Renee Nicole Good.
Recent reports on Italian television claimed that two journalists for RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana), Italy’s state-owned public broadcaster, were threatened by ICE agents in the United States while reporting in Minneapolis on federal immigration enforcement actions. Italian media led the public to believe that ICE agents threatened to break the journalists’ car windows if they did not stop filming.
In reality, ICE agents stopped the vehicle carrying the two RAI journalists because they had been following the agents for an extended period. The ICE agents asked the journalists to roll down their window and comply with their direction. The journalists refused to roll down the window and repeatedly stated that they were journalists.
In the footage aired on Italian television, an ICE agent warns, “This is the only warning. If you keep following us, we’ll smash the window and drag you out of the car.” It is clear from the context of the full video that the agent was referring to continuing to follow the officers and refusing to comply with commands, rather than simply continuing to film. The incident quickly became a political controversy in Italy, with politicians condemning the warning as intimidation and calling on the government to respond.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala urged the government to reject the presence of ICE, calling the agency “a militia that kills and enters into the homes of people by signing their own permission slips.” Sala said ICE agents are not welcome in Milan and questioned whether Italy could say no to President Trump because they are “not aligned with our democratic way of ensuring security.”
Former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, posting on X, urged Italy’s government to block ICE from attending the Games, referencing what he described as “street violence and killings” in the United States linked to ICE. “We cannot allow this,” he concluded.
Elly Schlein, leader of Italy’s center-left Democratic Party, called ICE an armed body that has shown contempt for the law on U.S. soil and questioned how such forces could be trusted to respect Italian sovereignty.
Italian left-wing politicians expressing outrage over ICE’s presence at the Olympics represent a country facing its own immigration and crime crisis. President Trump called out European leaders at Davos for refusing to address the issue. Italy received 158,482 asylum applications and 66,317 illegal migrants in 2024.
An estimated 321,000 people live without documentation in Italy, while the country currently maintains 139,141 migrants in its reception system. In 2024, Italy recorded a net balance of $128 million for immigration-related programs.
Foreign workers in Italy number approximately 2.4 million, representing 10.1 percent of the total workforce. Regular migrants have access to welfare benefits equal to those of Italian citizens, and the Inclusion Allowance is available to long-term residents, providing income supplements and rent assistance.
Diversity is our strength, and Italy is no exception. Foreigners constitute 31 percent of inmates in Italian prisons, while in Milan they represent 78 percent of the prison population. Between 60 and 80 percent of foreign detainees are illegal immigrants. Although foreigners represent only 9 percent of Italy’s population, they commit 60 percent of street robberies, 61 percent of burglaries, 69 percent of pickpocketing incidents, 43 percent of sexual assaults, and account for 34.7 percent of all arrests nationwide. They commit 28 percent of murders and attempted murders, 33 percent of assaults, 41 percent of rapes, and 49 percent of burglaries. In Milan specifically, foreign citizens commit 65 percent of all crimes.
A 2016 Confcommercio study found that legal immigrants are twice as likely to commit crimes as Italians, while illegal immigrants are 14 times more likely to commit crimes. Non-EU minors up to age 17 represent about 1.5 percent of the Italian population but commit 65 percent of muggings, 50.2 percent of thefts, 48.1 percent of robberies, 47.7 percent of sexual assaults, and 40.4 percent of beatings within their age group. Foreign minors account for 45.71 percent of all charged or arrested minors.
Given Italy’s own immigration and crime statistics, one might expect its leaders to welcome the presence of ICE.
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