ICE OUT rally planned in Milan as Italy moves to calm fears over its role in the Olympics

ROME, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Italy has detailed a sweeping security plan for the Winter Olympics, stressing that it will retain command of all operations after news emerged that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel would assist the American delegation.

The Games will be one of the most complex security operations Italy has ever had to manage, with the event split between two main centres, Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, with additional events taking place elsewhere in the north.

Some 3,500 athletes will take part in the event, which runs from February 6 to 22, and the government expects about 2 million visitors, including 60,000 for the opening ceremony at Milan’s San Siro stadium.

The US delegation will be led by US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

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Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the security operation combines on-the-ground deployments, intelligence-based prevention and, for the first time at a major event in Italy, a 24-hour cybersecurity control room.

Around 6,000 law enforcement officers will protect multiple Olympic sites, supported by restricted access and no-fly areas.

Competing nations often bring in their own security personnel. To that end, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday that several federal agencies, including ICE, would help protect visiting Americans, as they have done at previous Olympics.

ICE and Border Patrol agents have come under heavy criticism in the United States for their enforcement of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, and images of their actions have shocked many in Italy, traditionally a close U.S. ally.

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In a statement, the Interior Ministry said ICE personnel would only work in US diplomatic offices, such as the Milan consulate, and “not in the field.”

He added: “All security operations on Italian territory remain, as always, under the exclusive responsibility and direction of the Italian authorities.”

ICE will be present through its Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) division, but its role “will be strictly advisory and intelligence-based, with no patrolling or involvement in law enforcement,” Tilman J. Fertitta, the US ambassador to Italy, wrote in X.

“At the Olympic Games, HIS criminal investigators will contribute their expertise by providing intelligence on transnational criminal threats, with a focus on cybercrime and national security threats.”

‘ICE OUT’ demonstrations are coming

The guarantees have not silenced the criticism.

The far-left union USB has called for an “ICE OUT” demonstration in central Milan on February 6, coinciding with the opening ceremony of the Games, while opposition parties and left-wing groups are planning a protest this Saturday.

Emanuele Ingria, a human resources worker in Milan, told Reuters he was “very concerned” about the prospect of ICE agents operating in Italy.

“I don’t think that’s what we need today,” he added. “Especially considering what’s happening there (in the United States)… It’s truly a guerrilla force, I don’t like it.”

According to the Olympic Games deployment plan, more than 3,000 regular police officers, some 2,000 Carabinieri military police and more than 800 fiscal police from the Guardia di Finanza will be assigned to the venues, with Milan hosting the largest contingent.

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The plan also includes drone surveillance, robotic inspection systems for dangerous or inaccessible areas and a cybersecurity command center in Milan tasked with monitoring both Olympic networks and strategic transportation infrastructure that faced disruptions ahead of the Paris 2024 Games.

Authorities will activate several “red zones” from February 6 to 22, prohibiting access to people with public order convictions in an effort to avoid clashes.

(Reporting by Giselda Vagnoni; additional reporting in Milan by Antonio Denti and Matteo Negri and in Rome by Alvise Armellini; Editing by Crispian Balmer, Christian Radnedge and Clarence Fernandez)