Officers from the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agency will support U.S. security arrangements at the Winter Olympics in Italy in February, French newswire AFP confirmed in a report on Tuesday.
The question of whether ICE agents would be present at the Olympics sparked debate in Italy over the weekend in the wake of the shooting dead of Alex Pretti on Saturday in Minneapolis by federal agents attached to the unit, which followed their killing of Renee Nicole Good on January 7.
In a statement sent to the AFP, the agency said: “At the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations is supporting the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations.”
It continued that security operations remained under the authority of Italy and that its agents would not be conducting immigration operations. Deadline has contacted the U.S. embassy in London for clarification on whether this means ICE agents will physically travel to Italy.
The 25th Winter Olympics will unfold in around the hubs of the northern Italian city of Milan and swanky mountain resort of Cortina from February 6 to 22.
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U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are due to attend the opening ceremony in Milan on February 6. There was confusion in Italy this weekend over whether ICE agents would travel to Italy as part of their security detail.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi initially denied a report from daily newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano that ICE agents would be involved.
“ICE definitely will not be operating on Italian national territory,” he said, at the same time as revealing that the U.S. had not yet communicated on the security arrangements for its delegation.
The U.S. embassy in Rome later corrected this assertion stating that in previous Olympic tournaments diverse federal agencies had supported the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service.
Attilio Fontana, the governor for the region of Lombardy, which is hosting the games alongside the region of Veneto, also said he expected ICA agents to be present.
“”The ICE will only be here to monitor U.S. Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio, so it will only be a defensive measure but I am convinced that nothing will happen,” he said.
News that ICE will be involved in U.S. security arrangements at the Olympics comes as President Donald Trump attempts to mitigate a growing backlash against his decision to deploy its agents to Minneapolis as part of a hardline illegal immigration crackdown.
U.S. media reported overnight that border patrol chief Gregory Bovino and some of his agents would withdraw from the city on Tuesday amid growing condemnation of their actions there, which have left two U.S. citizens dead.