Olympics 2026: 20,000 people protest against ICE agents

DIt was no coincidence that the protesters chose Piazza XXV Aprile as the starting point for their demonstration. Around 20,000 people took to the streets in Milan on Saturday, or rather to the square with its historical significance: It is dedicated to the memory of April 25, 1945, the day of the liberation of Italy, on which the partisan movement took control of the northern Italian cities from the fascists. Back then, Milan was a central place of resistance and therefore still has a strong left-wing, anti-fascist identity today – which, remarkably, is now also being revived in the context of the Olympic Games.

The demonstrators were in no way concerned with resistance to the event itself, but rather with those who came for it: US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have announced their presence at the opening ceremony. And with them also an entourage of security forces, including agents from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Its more familiar short form is: ICE.

For a little over a week, the debate about the ICE agents at the Olympic Games has dominated the Italian news, in political Rome as well as in the Olympic city of Milan. Most recently, it was the mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, who was particularly critical: “A militia that kills” are the ICE agents who are currently being criticized in the USA, mainly in Minneapolis, for their violent operations against migrants and protesters: “It is clear that they are not welcome in Milan.”

But: How should one even imagine this? ICE forces looking for migrants on the outskirts of Olympia, who then… what actually? Shouldn’t enter the USA?

The fact that the excitement became so great has not only to do with the brutal actions of ICE in the USA, but also with the hesitant attempts at explanation from Rome. It is not ICE’s operational arm, the so-called Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), that will be deployed at the Olympics, but rather investigators from another ICE department, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). A distinction that the Italian government could have communicated from the start. The US embassy said quite early on that the HSI agents should provide support and, among other US services, provide information. So from your desk, not even necessarily at the location in Milan.

HSI already has a branch office in Rome that regularly cooperates with Italian authorities, for example when it comes to smuggled cultural goods. According to a statement from the US Embassy, ​​HSI people were also deployed at the Olympic Games in Paris.

Instead of explaining all this to an increasingly agitated population, the Italian government appeared confused. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi initially said that ICE would not be there and that they would “never see ICE on Italian roads.” At the same time, however, he doesn’t see the problem “if it were like that.” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani spoke of three or four ICE men in the background, without further explanation. Only days later did he say that there were no armed ICE agents on Italian roads – with the not very reassuring addition: “It’s not like the SS is coming.”

Meanwhile, the Italian opposition continued to fuel the excitement. There is now also wild speculation about the role of units and secret services from other countries. The image of Donald Trump’s police troops on the streets of Milan, accompanying Vance and Rubio on the way to San Siro, where the opening ceremony will take place on Friday evening, was cemented in people’s minds. According to the authorities, this will definitely not be the case. The idea of ​​this scene, however, was enough to evoke a debate in the run-up to the games, which thrived primarily on its strong symbolic external impact: the question of a stance on the ICE unit had long since developed in a very fundamental direction when people in Milan took to the streets on Saturday.

Regardless of the specific use at the Olympic Games, the demonstrators wanted to send a signal against arbitrariness and police violence, in solidarity with the protests in the USA. However, with an Italian undertone: “ICE out” could be read on the posters, but also: “ICE only in Spritz please.”