Days after two of its reporters were stopped and threatened by ICE in Minneapolis, Italy expressed its anger over the US now sending ICE agents to the Winter Olympic Games in Milan, set to begin on February 6. But the US embassy clarified that ICE agents who will go to Milan obviously won’t carry out any operation on foreign soil and will be there only to support the US diplomatic mission.
‘Could we ever say no to Trump?’
Calling ICE a militia that kills, Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala said ICE is not welcome in Milan. But in an interview with Italy’s RTL Radio 102, the mayor said: “Could we ever say no to Trump?””I believe they shouldn’t come to Italy, because they don’t guarantee they’re aligned with our democratic security management methods,” Sala said. “We can take care of their security ourselves. We don’t need ICE.”
Why will ICE go to Milan?
The US said ICE would support US diplomatic security details during the Olympics. All security operations will remain under Italian authority. They said various federal agencies had worked at previous Games in the past too. “ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is supporting the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations,” the ICE statement said. Italy’s interior minister Matteo Pantedosi said he was not aware that ICE would be coming to the Milan-Cortina Olympics. Then he told the BBC that he did not see any problem in that, as foreign delegations could choose their own security.Two Italian correspondents — Laura Cappon and Daniele Babbo — were threatened by ICE when they were reporting for a television programme from Minneapolis. “I’m not doing anything wrong, I’m just driving around my community”, the driver said before an ICE agent warned: “We are going to break out your window and extract you from the vehicle”.
