ICE in Milan-Cortina: what US agents will really do at the Olympics

They will not patrol the streets, they will not check documents, they will not have any operational power over the territory. The presence of theICE at the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina takes shape definitively and, after days of controversy, the contours of the collaboration between Italy And United States are put in black and white. During the February Games, it will be the investigative component of the ICE, theHomeland Security Investigationsto operate from inside the operations room set up at the United States Consulate General in Milan.

ICE in Milan-Cortina, what we know

—

The sticking point came after the meeting at Interior Ministry between the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi and the US ambassador Tilman J. Fertitta. The American agents will collaborate with the Italian authorities exclusively for the protection of athletes and delegations Americans, without any public order function. The security of the Games will remain entirely below Italian responsibilitywith a total use of approximately six thousand men of the national system. US investigators will not be able to carry out external services, patrols or escorts.

Who are the men of Homeland Security Investigations

—

Homeland Security Investigations is the investigative arm of ICE, the US federal agency for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Unlike the departments involved in migration controls in the United States, the men of the HSI are federal officials specialize in investigations on transnational crimes. Like other US agencies – FBI or GODDESS – HSI already has a liaison office at the US embassy in Rome. The agents employed in Milan-Cortina will act as liaison officersmaintaining relations between the US authorities and the Italian police forces.

What they will do during the Games

—

Their work will take place entirely within the operations rooms. In coordination with the US State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, they will provide information support And analytical in the assessment of risks linked to possible threats from transnational criminal organizations. ICE itself reiterated this, clarifying that immigration control operations will not be conducted in foreign territory and that all security activities will remain under Italian authority.

The political dimension

—

Despite the clarifications, the presence of ICE sparked a strong political debate. The opposition asked for formal explanations, prompting the government to plan a briefing to the Chamber the next one February 4. The Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani he tried to reduce the scope of the controversy, speaking of normal collaboration in major international events. “It’s not that the SS are arriving, it’s not that armed men are arriving to enforce public order,” he reiterated, underlining that they will be a few officials without decision-making powers.

the protests

—

However, attention remains high on the protests front. An online petition calling for the institutional presence of ICE to be excluded from the Games has passed 15 thousand signatures. Even the mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala expressed a critical position, defining the American agency as incompatible with the democratic model of Italian security. According to Sala, the presence of ICE risks compromising the universal message of the Olympics, while accusations of improvisation in the management of an issue considered extremely delicate come from the centre-left. On the part of the executive, the position remains unchanged: no operational presence on the territory, no transfer of sovereignty, no role in public order. The collaboration with foreign agencies, the government explains, is part of a model already applied in previous Olympic events.