Immigration and enforcement agents aren’t exactly living la dolce vita ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Italy’s second-largest city on Saturday to protest ICE agents deployed by the Trump administration to assist with security at the upcoming Milan-Cortina Winter Games.
Footage and photos show Italians packed into Piazza XXV Aprile, a deliberate gathering spot named for the date of Italy’s liberation from Nazi fascism in 1945.
The demonstration doubled as a way to voice displeasure with ICE in Italy and sound an alarm over what many Italians see as the dismantling of democracy in the United States.
Protester Silvana Grassi told the Associated Press she was disturbed by scenes of ICE agents in Minneapolis shooting and killing protesters and detaining children, likely referencing the fatal shootings of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents.
“It makes me want to cry to think of it,’’ Grassi said. “It’s too terrible. How did they elect such a terrible, evil man?’’
The Trump administration responded last week, vowing that ICE special agents assisting with security for next month’s Olympics would work out of a single room at the U.S. Consulate, following initial outrage over the agents’ arrival in the European country.
But protesters weren’t convinced.
“It’s not just for the Olympic Games, it’s about justice in the world. We don’t want here ICE,” Alessandro Capella, who heads the Italian Democratic Party’s Milan chapter, told NPR.
President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Italy, billionaire Tilman Fertitta, initially met Tuesday with Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi to smooth things over, prompting the Italian Interior Ministry to release a statement.
“For the Olympics, the U.S. will set up its own operations room at its Milan consulate for representatives of U.S. agencies potentially interested in the event,” the statement said. “Experts from Homeland Security Investigations will also be employed in the room.”
The statement emphasized that HSI was not represented by “operational personnel like those engaged in immigration control in the U.S.”
“They have no responsibilities in Italy and will be primarily responsible for consulting their own databases and providing support to other actors involved,” it added.
Still, protesters remain undeterred. Tens of thousands of Italians have signed petitions demanding that ICE not be allowed at the Games, while opposition lawmakers have called on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government to deny Trump’s “thugs” entry. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala has repeatedly said they are not welcome.
“This is a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the homes of people, signing their own permission slips,” Sala said in an interview with RTL Radio 102, according to the Associated Press. “It is clear they are not welcome in Milan, without a doubt.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
