Demonstrators in Milan protest ICE unit at Winter Olympics
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Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Milan’s Piazza XXV Aprile to protest the planned deployment of U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to support the U.S. delegation at the Milan–Cortina 2026 winter Olympics, even though the agents would be stationed in a control room rather than patrolling streets. Participants included members of the Democratic Party, the CGIL trade union, ANPI and other groups, who waved banners and blew whistles to voice concerns about what they see as creeping authoritarianism and human-rights abuses linked to ICE. Organizers and protesters pointed to recent violent incidents involving ICE in the U.S.; some signs called the agency “Gestapo” while others used slogans such as “Ice only in Spritz.” Officials say the unit being sent is Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which commonly assists overseas events, not the Enforcement and removal Operations (ERO) responsible for domestic immigration crackdowns. The deployment has provoked political backlash in Italy: milan’s mayor opposed it and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi was summoned to Parliament. The Olympics open Feb. 6, with high-level U.S. depiction expected.
Demonstrators in Milan protest ICE unit at Winter Olympics
MILAN (AP) — Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Saturday in Milan to protest the deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during the upcoming Winter Olympics, unbothered by the fact that agents would be stationed in a control room and not operating on the streets.
The protest in Piazza XXV Aprile, a square named for the date of Italy’s liberation from Nazi fascism in 1945, drew people from the left-leaning Democratic Party, the CGIL trade union confederation and the ANPI organizations that protect the memory of Italy’s partisan resistance during World War II, along with many other people.
Organizers handed out plastic whistles, which participants blew as music blared from a van. The protest was as much against the news that agents from a division of ICE would participate in security for the U.S. delegation as against what many of those present said they saw as creeping fascism in the United States.
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“No thank you, from Minnesota to the world, at the side of anyone who fights for human rights,’’ read one banner. “Never again means never again for anyone,’’ read another, and “Ice only in Spritz,’’ a reference to a popular aperitif, read yet another.
The ICE agents to be deployed to Milan are not from the same unit as the immigration agents cracking down in Minnesota and other U.S. cities.
News of the deployment of ICE agents has provoked a backlash in Italy. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala has said they were not welcome. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi has been called to Parliament to testify about the deployment this week.
Protester Silvana Grassi held a sign that read “Ice=Gestapo.” She said the scenes of ICE agents in Minneapolis shooting and killing protesters and detaining children were deeply upsetting.
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“It makes me want to cry to think of it,’’ Grassi said. “It’s too terrible. How did they elect such a terrible, evil man?’’
Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the U.S. is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers are being sent to Italy.
“Even if it’s not the same ones, we don’t want them here,’’ Grassi said.
Paolo Bortoletto, also holding a banner, was aware that the officers would have an investigative and not a street role.
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Still, he said, “We don’t want them in our country. We are a peaceful country. We don’t want fascists. It’s their ideas that bother us.”
The Olympics begin Feb. 6 with an opening ceremony that will be attended by U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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