US to send ICE agents to Winter Olympics, prompting Italian anger
The US immigration agency whose officers have been involved in two fatal shootings in Minneapolis has said it is sending agents to help support American security operations during the Winter Olympics, which start in Italy on 6 February.
Confirmation of the agency's role came from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after reports prompted alarm and anger in Italy.
"This is a militia that kills... of course they're not welcome in Milan," the city's mayor, Beppe Sala, told Italian radio on Tuesday.
An ICE spokesperson stressed that "all security operations remain under Italian authority".
US embassy sources in Rome had already explained to Italian media that various federal agencies had worked at previous Games in the past, although it was not clear if the customs and enforcement agency had itself taken part.
Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Pantedosi had initially appeared unaware that US immigration officials would be coming to the Milan-Cortina Olympics and said even if they were, foreign delegations could choose their own security, saying: "I don't see what the problem is and it's very normal."
The governor of Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, sought to calm the situation, suggesting that ICE agents would be deployed in Italy to protect US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y29xzjdzvoOpen linkView original on lemmy.zip
Italian people, do some pranking of your own and deport them.
They can just not grant them work visas and then when they're caught "working", lock them in a detention centre until they die of "natural causes".
To some country they've never been to.
Send them to Russia, Putin them to work.
Sending russia criminals proficient with guns is like donating a whole new unit of spetznaz
I think you overestimate ICEs proficiency with guns. They also are American so they would be sent to the front line as meat shields.
They are not proficient with guns. Anyone can fire wildly at point blank and hit someone if they have enough bullets.
The Italian police wont allow that because of pressure from the US and Meloni who likes Trump.
Yep. And Italy has a shit load of fascist sympathizers, especially in the north. If ice shows up, nothing would happen.
This would be genuinely an excellent prank
So an agency whose self described purpose is to remove unwanted people from the country will go to a place they are not wanted?
That tracks.
Well now hold on a second. ICE is going to be protecting Vance and Rubio, and ICE is also utterly incompetent, so maybe let's see how this plays out
Well well, some very lucky ICE agents moving up in the world - first they were just Gestapo but now they're graduating to full SS.
SS is the Secret Service right, right?
Yes, but also no. I think @pulsewidth is being cheeky as both uses of the abbreviation apply.
I hear there are a lot of Luigis there.
Fuck, I hope they use their phones.
The US is entitled to bring their own security forces, as fucking dumb as it is.
Neither ICE, nor CBP are security forces. Neither would be there operating in their official role. This is not USSS, or FBI, or even military. These are two agencies whose job it is supposed to be to deal with customs and immigration issues within the confines of the US.
Italy really should tell them to get fucked.
I suppose they're afraid their athletes might run away, something North Korea is usually accused of.
In 1936 the US sent a black man to the nazi Olympics, who promptly won gold and made a fool of Hitler. In 2026, the US sends nazis to the Olympics to… what, make a fool of the US?
And in 2028, the US expects us all to show up at their own nazi Olympics?
Speaking as an American, I hope the rest of the world boycotts all events taking place here until we get our shit together
This is gonna suck for the athletes. Olympic games being every 4 years (winter doesn't really count if you're track and field and summer doesn't really count if you're a cross country skier) and it's the most prestigious event out there for most disciplines (not football I guess), so your sponsorship deals are very dependent on it. I don't think many athletes out there are in a position to say no when they get a shot at the olympics, even if it's their 3rd time or something.
You're right about this. We do still have two more years, who knows what will be happening then. The last year has felt like a lifetime.
The World Cup starts in June, though....
Yeah, but who gives a fuck about the feelings of overpaid multimillionaires running around chasing a ball for 90 minutes?
Ok seriously, why does immigration and customs enforcement have any security role dealing with the president and vice president? They are not law enforcement, they are fancy border guards.
The answer of course is that these fuckers took a smaller, already aggressive force and funded it to the fucking moon. It’s their secret police now, clearly after MPLS it’s obvious.
really is the modern
gestaposa.Edit- corrected. Meant it more in the colloquial sense but I’m always in favor of accuracy.
The Gestapo was a well trained, plain-clothes force, specialized on covert operations and domestic terror tactics. ICE is a (badly) uniformed, badly trained band of street brawlers. So they are more like the SA - and, as the SA was, are probably going to be thrown under the bus no matter which direction things go.
It's like how the brownshirt "Saalschutz" stopped just protecting NSDAP assemblies and started fighting KPD members on the streets, before being renamed "Sturmabteilung", helping with the putsch and so on
The Gestapo had style and competence and did not terrorize the people on the streets. ICE is Trump's SA.
This stuff have to end, this just a sport event and anyy type of ICE is not ok.
It's the winter Olympics though. Some ice is acceptable.
I see what you did there, good one!
Seriously we all saw what happened in 94. /S
God damn it, Tonya!
Guess who's going to 'protect' voting booths next election.
Guess who isn't gonna start a revolution? Trump for a life I guess.
Just arrest them on the spot, stuff them into vehicles and whisk them away to secret facilities without due process.
Simple. And Meal Team 6 would understand why it was necessary, and so would cooperate completely. /s
Is the US Secret Service not good enough any more?
Maybe because ICE is more beholden to the party than the Secret Sevice is
They only trust their very own goons.
Would you trust them if you were them?
I mean, why not?
Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Roosevelt Kennedy, Regan, Trump's ear.
"we have to be lucky only once, you have to be lucky always"
secret service wasn't responsible for protecting the president until 1901, in response to McKinley's assassination. when Roosevelt was shot he was a non-incumbent candidate, so not under secret service protection; former presidents were not given secret service protection until 1965. Reagan survived because of secret service.
Don't get in our country, ICE!
I don' fucking want them here, they can go fuck themselves, i hope that our government do something and if they don't, we should get mad
The only place where ICE should be in Italy, is in piazzale Loreto, upside down.
Wait - I've seen all these headlines today and wondered why we're talking about the Olympics... But it didn't occur to me that the US has the summer Olympics in 2 years, definitely not winter. I can't even imagine what stupidity is being used to justify sending ICE to any other country.
Training purposes would be legitimate considering they'll definitely be part of the summer Olympics security. Just because they're fascist assholes doesn't mean we need to lose our ability to see logic.
WTF?
Why would Italy be pissed about this ?
You deny them entry, the end. Come on, this is not that hard.
They’re not sending their best.
Now known as the "special, special olympics."
ICE actually are sending their best, though you wouldn't know it.
MAGA you incompetent fuckwits.
Does Italy have the same agreement with the US like Sweden does where, at least soldiers, are allowed to commit unlimited crimes in their country because the US "promise to totally" charge them back home? Then letting ICE in is asking for trouble.
Maybe they should make a new Olympic game that is the rest of the world vs americas ice. The fans could join too.
Team America, World Gestapo.
That's a big fucking problem, right there. Is the Secret Service not enough? Gotta have the low-EQ/IQ goon squad there too?
I would say it is a lie. But then why are they sent? Is it PR for ICE or something more sinister?
My money's on optics, so PR but not for ICE so directly. They're trying to pull a Big Fascism here and they need to project power at every turn. An ostentatious and loyal armed guard made up of knuckle-draggers that aren't afraid to break every last law, fit the bill for future photo ops. The Secret Service is more about blending in so they're not going to cut it.
Just because the US says something doesn't make it true. ICE has fuck all authority in Italy, same as any US law or regime
Bruh, I can't wait for them to shoot somebody and start an international incident. I trust that they'll be that incompetent.
Thats how USA got in WW2, but with submarine.
The secret service would be the obvious choice but they must respect the constitution too much for trump's liking. /s
The US' untrained retard squad is being sent on an international mission. The only question is how and where will something go wrong. Dear Italians, can you please write to your governments that you want to avoid hosting ICE agents? Because it's the responsible thing to do. As a fellow European, I am highly concerned about them gunning down one of us next, in another act of gang brutality.
Can't dismiss the vibes that it's like parents taking their favorite children to Disneyland for acing homework, an entertaining and educational trip to the land origin of fascism.
Such a shame that athletes who never planned for that can get booed for being from the US, but if nothing else, Olympics is one of the best places and times to find a better team and country.
Italy could always just deport them. 🤷♂️
Meloni leans toward the MAGA shitstains, what's the problem with a sprinkling of ICE in Bella Italia?
So when they're done throwing out all the immigrants from this country, they're going to go to other countries and throw the foreigners out of those countries, too?