Flash Demonstration Draws Thousands in City Center
Hundreds of demonstrators filled the streets of Milan on Saturday, rallying against the planned deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The protests target the agents’ role in supporting and securing the American delegation, headed by Vice President JD Vance, amid growing international tensions.
At least 1,000 people assembled in Piazza XXV Aprile, a bustling square near Milan’s heart, for an impromptu gathering organized by center-left groups and labor unions. Participants blew whistles, echoing a symbol of resistance born from recent incidents in Minneapolis involving the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Banners and placards dotted the crowd with playful yet pointed slogans like “ICE only in the spritz,” “ICE? No, grazie,” “The only ICE we want in Milan is the one under the skates,” and “With ICE, we make granita.” Loudspeakers blasted Bruce Springsteen’s recent track “Streets of Minneapolis,” inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump’s strict immigration policies.
Backlash to Security Role Sparks Fears
The demonstrations stem from outrage over reports that ICE personnel will travel to Italy for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Games to assess and counter threats from transnational crime networks. Early announcements lacked specifics, fueling concerns that agents might target Italian residents in ways similar to U.S. operations seen in viral videos and news coverage.
Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, whose city will host the opening ceremony along with events like figure skating and ice hockey, firmly opposed the presence. “This is a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the homes of people, signing their own permission slips,” Sala declared, emphasizing that the agents are unwelcome.
Subsequent details clarified that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an ICE subunit, will operate from a command center at the U.S. consulate in a advisory capacity. The team in Italy differs from those handling domestic immigration enforcement, and such deployments are standard for ICE at global sporting events like the Olympics.
Despite these explanations, the strong reaction highlights rising global scrutiny of ICE and the anti-American feelings stirred by certain agent actions.
Political and Community Reactions
Alessandro Capelli, secretary of the Milan branch of Italy’s Democratic Party—the primary opposition to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration—addressed the crowd. “We know that today, a lot of people in the world are looking at us, because we are hosting the Olympic Games. It’s not just a sporting event, it’s important for all the world,” Capelli said. He added, “We would like to say that the fight for human rights all over the world, it’s our fight too. We are citizens of Milan, we are citizens of the world. We are watching on TV what ICE is doing in the U.S., so for us it’s quite a normal thing to show our solidarity with people who are fighting.”
Capelli noted varied responses across Italy’s political landscape. “Obviously, the democratic and left part are moving with more courage, while people in the right say something like, for example: ‘We don’t like a lot the method of ICE.’ But we have a problem: Steve Bannon is a friend of Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini, so they have to explain to us how this friendship is going.”
Jocelyn Frederick, an American expatriate from Florida who has resided in Italy for nearly two decades, questioned the choice of ICE over broader Homeland Security involvement. “We’re used to hearing about Homeland Security being involved in major international events,” she observed. “We hear about that happening, and especially for anti-terrorism, but that they would be using the ICE, it sounds like it’s a show of force: ‘We’re bringing our agents. We’re showing that they are strictly connected to Vance and the administration.’ Like, they’re coming with him. That’s what doesn’t really make sense.”
Frederick described divided local opinions: “Some people will say, ‘We need ICE here too,’ and then there’s other people who are just very clearly very against it. The majority of people who I speak to are very upset about what’s going on in America in general.”
Along Corso Garibaldi, leading from the square to a nearby metro station, a bar and gelateria named Icebound added an ironic backdrop to the unfolding events.
