Italian officials expressed outrage after learning that the Trump administration is planning to send an Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit to assist with security at the Winter Olympics in Milan.
A series of shootings involving American immigration authorities have made international news over the past month, turning the otherwise routine involvement of Homeland Security Investigations in a major international event like the Olympics into a political lightning rod. HSI is part of ICE but separate from the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, the unit that has been at the forefront of President Donald Trump’s aggressive mass-deportation agenda.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala issued a fiery statement during an interview on Italian radio this week, calling ICE a dangerous “militia” that he would not allow into his city.