Olympics
2026 Winter
Olympics
Local law enforcement, including these policemen walking past Piazza Duomo in Milan, handle most security functions at the Winter Games. A division of ICE is expected to aid Italian authorities' intelligence efforts, however. Maja Hitij / Getty Images
A plan to send U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy caused an outcry this week, with Milan’s mayor calling ICE “a militia that kills” and saying the agents are not welcome.
The news came amid mass protests in Minneapolis over aggressive immigration crackdowns by ICE, protests which have only intensified following the shooting deaths of two American citizens in the city by federal agents. But ICE, which is split into two sectors, commonly provides intelligence and security at international sporting events. Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary for Homeland Security, confirmed Tuesday that ICE agents will attend the Winter Games but do not have the authority to conduct enforcement operations in other countries and will not attempt to do so.
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ICE has drawn intense scrutiny during the Trump administration over increasing crackdowns in various cities, including Minneapolis. The organization’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) side enforces immigration laws. But video and images from Minneapolis and other cities where ICE has been deployed in large numbers that show agents grabbing U.S. citizens, detaining children and threatening protesters have generated significant backlash. That tension came to a head after federal agents shot and killed two people, Renée Good and Alex Pretti, in Minnesota this month.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), another sector of ICE, has helped secure large sporting events such as the Olympics, World Cup, and many Super Bowls, according to a former high-ranking DHS official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution. HSI is tasked with providing intelligence and monitoring human trafficking, cybercrime, and counterterrorism.
According to John Sandweg, a former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Obama administration, the perception of the entire agency has affected the ability of the HSI sector to operate.
“It’s a microcosm of what happens domestically every day to the ICE brand, everything you’re seeing in Minneapolis,” Sandweg told The Athletic. “One of the things I think that’s really tragic about this kind of approach is the way in which the administration has handled this has just devastated the ICE brand to a point worse than it’s ever been before.
“To the point where, even at the Olympics, even where it’s really Homeland Security functions, the brand is so tainted that it’s bleeding into it, and it’s impacting their ability to do that mission.”
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala delivered the most stern rebuke of the plan to send ICE to the Games during an Italian-language interview with RTL Radio 102.
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“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,” Sala said.
HSI has attempted in the past to separate itself and its functions from ERO and ICE in general. In 2018, HSI special agents sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security and then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, requesting that the two units separate.
The four-page letter stated that “the two sub-ICE agencies have become so specialized and independent that ICE’s mission can no longer be described as a singular synergistic mission. It can only be described as a combination of two distinct missions.” It was signed by 19 HSI agents from major cities, including Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago.
“The idea that ICE might play a role in the Olympic security planning, it scares people,” Sandweg said. “This has been going on for 20 years, just at a lower level, and there have been people, especially on that criminal investigative side, that have long advocated that the criminal investigative function should be split out and it should be its own agency so that it avoids the impacts of the immigration mission on their ability to do their job.”
HSI already has agents in 80 to 100 embassies worldwide, including in Rome, but more will head overseas to help during the Games. HSI agents will not act as security guards at Olympic venues, as the Olympics partner with local authorities to do so.
In an email, Nicole Deal, the chief of security and athlete services at the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, explained that the actual securing of the Games on-site will not run through ICE.
“At the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the USOPC leads the security profile, working closely with the Diplomatic Security Service and local and host national law enforcement,” Deal wrote. “Note that all Games security activity takes place under Italian leadership and in accordance with Italian law.”
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The Homeland Security Investigations unit is expected to aid Italian authorities’ intelligence efforts to guard the cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo against large-scale crimes such as human trafficking, cybercrime, or attempts to carry out terrorist attacks.
In terms of the potential for use of violent force, while federal agents are protected domestically by qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that shields government officials from civil liability, they do not hold that same immunity internationally, nor the same authority. Should HSI agents use force, they could be held liable, the former high-ranking DHS official said.
While they have previously aided personnel in securing the safety of dignitaries, such as the traveling parties of Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, much of that responsibility will fall on the shoulders of the Diplomatic Security Service.
— The Athletic’s Denny Alfonso contributed to this report.
Devon Henderson is a staff writer for The Athletic. He has covered the Summer Olympics, College Football Playoffs, and the Men’s Final Four while at Arizona State University and was an intern at the Southern California News Group, where he covered the Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Sparks, and LAFC. Follow Devon on Twitter @HendersonDevon_
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