ICE to have a role at the Winter Olympics in Italy
Italian fury at the announcement that the US immigration agency, responsible for two fatalities in recent weeks, will have a presence at the games
A spokesperson for the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that ICE agents will be in attendance at the Milan Cortina Games.
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However, they insisted that ICE would not be conducting enforcement operations.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: “All security operations remain under Italian authority".
"Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries.”
Attilio Fontana, the governor of the Lombardy region, suggested that ICE agents will be deployed for the protection of US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The announcement has been met with fury inside of Italy.
Speaking to RTL Radio 102, Milan's mayor, Giuseppe Sala, said: "This is a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the homes of people, signing their own permission slips. It is clear they are not welcome in Milan, without a doubt."
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On Saturday, ICE gunned down Alex Pretti, 37, an intensive care nurse, in Minneapolis.
The shooting marked the second such killing in recent weeks, following an ICE agent shooting Renée Nicole Good earlier this month.
White House officials initially suggested that Pretti acted aggressively.
The deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, called the victim “a domestic terrorist who tried to assassinate law enforcement”.
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, accused Pretti of “the definition of domestic terrorism”.
But backlash has mounted with the emergence of video footage of the shooting disputing the White House’s initial claims.
The video shows Pretti being tackled by multiple ICE officers, who removed his gun.
On the ground, an ICE officer shoots Pretti in the back roughly 10 times.
The killing has sparked widespread protest in Minneapolis, with protestors gathering outside of the hotel where the ICE chief, Gregory Bovino, was believed to have been staying.
Since then, it has been announced that Bovino will be leaving Minneapolis, returning to a previous local position in El Centro, California.
The removal was confirmed by a senior White House official and Trump administration figure.
Trump also announced that he would replace Bovino with Tom Homan, his “border czar”, to oversee the Minneapolis operation.
Alongside this, a Minnesota chief judge has ordered Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, to appear in court this week.