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Milan’s mayor says ICE agents “will not be welcome” at next month’s Winter Olympics amid growing backlash over the Trump administration’s decision to give ICE agents security responsibilities.
decided to bring ice officials to game exist Italy The next month sparked outrage America is still reeling from the shooting deaths of two people by Minneapolis agents this month.
Thousands of Italians sign petition Request that the agency be banned from entering the countryafter ICE confirmed it was sending us Diplomatic security service that protects senior officials.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said ICE “does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries” and that agents’ visits are only for “vetting and risk reduction.”
But Italian officials have expressed concerns about the potential security risks of using ICE agents after a death. Critical care nurse Alex Pretti was shot to death on January 24 in Minneapolis. Just a few weeks ago, ICE agents shot and killed author Renee Good.
In both incidents, officials claimed the agents acted in self-defense. The claims were disputed and the deaths sparked a public outcry.
Giuseppe Sala, the mayor of Milan, which hosts many events, said “ICE agents are not welcome” at the Winter Olympics, which runs from February 6 to March 15.
“This is a murderous militia,” he told Italian radio station RTL 102.5. “It’s clear that they are not welcome in Milan. There is no doubt about it. Can’t we just say no to Trump for once?”
Giuseppe Conte, president of the populist Five Star Movement, said: “Following the violence and killings on the streets in the United States, we now know from their spokesperson that ICE agents will be coming to investigate Italy … We cannot allow this to happen. “
Democratic Congressman Marco Furfaro said republic: “Italy does not welcome any form of ICE. The government should only say this: Our country strongly opposes the presence of militias, even minimally or symbolically, which is incompatible with our Constitution and our values at the Olympic Games.”
When asked if he was concerned about the agency’s violence in the United States, Lombardy Governor Attilio Fontana previously assured that ICE would only serve as a “bodyguard” for Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Italy.
Mr. Fontana later recanted, saying he knew nothing about the incident and had no intention of confirming their existence. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi also said Saturday that “we are not aware at the moment” of the possible presence of ICE. Security remains the responsibility of state authorities, he said.
U.S. officials finalized Tuesday that one branch will participate next month.
“During the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is supporting the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the host nation in reviewing and mitigating risks from transnational criminal organizations,” ICE said, stressing that “all security operations remain the responsibility of Italian authorities.”
The HSI branch investigates global threats to, from and through the United States, according to the ICE website.
The Trump administration is also facing growing backlash after two reporters from Italian TV station RAI were threatened by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
Journalists were accompanying a volunteer monitoring operations in the city when armed men wearing bulletproof vests approached their car and asked them to roll down their windows.
Video of the incident shows reporters identifying themselves multiple times in English before being warned: “If you continue to follow us from now on… we will break your windows and pull you out of the car.”
Pepe Provenzano of the center-left Democratic Party said journalists were being “threatened by Trump’s political police.”
“We demand that the Meloni government, if there is any sense of national pride, formally protest and distance itself once and for all,” he said, according to the Washington Post. Ansa news agency.
Mr Trump Border Patrol Capt. Gregory Bovino, who led immigration raids across the country after the shooting death of Alex Pretty in Minneapolis, was fired, atlantic reported.