Milan Cortina Olympic Games, how the Ice men will act in Italy

The operations room will be at the consulate in Milan

by Rome Editorial Staff

28 January 2026

La protesta a Minneapolis contro gli agenti dell’Ice (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Who am I
The "liasoner officer"
Coordination with Italian authorities
Special agents

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

It will be His, the investigative arm of the Ice men, who will be working in the operations room of the US consulate in Milan, on the occasion of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February. Throughout the event - to support diplomatic security details and not to conduct immigration control operations - men from His (Homeland security investigations) will be in the field for the US.

Ice will not have a public order function on the streets: Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi met with US Ambassador Tilman J. Fertitta and agreed that American agents will cooperate with the Italian authorities for the protection of US athletes and delegations.

The contours of the security machine that will be activated are clarified: there will be six thousand men of the national security system.

Ice's presence in Italy has sparked controversy from the opposition, so much so that the government will report on the case with a briefing - by Piantedosi - on 4 February in the Chamber of Deputies.

Who I am

In the field is the investigative component of ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement), which is the US federal agency that came under the spotlight after the murder of an American citizen, Alex Pretti, killed by an agent in Minneapolis during protests against the Trump administration's handling of immigration policies. His, like other US federal agencies such as the DEA or FBI, has its own liaison office inside the US embassy in Rome.

Chi c’è dietro gli agenti dell’ICE

The 'liasoner officers'

They are the so-called 'liaison officers', whose task is to liaise between the federal agencies they represent and the Italian police force. Therefore, it remains a fixed point that His personnel cannot do any external policing, patrolling or escorting. For the Milan-Cortina event, as in previous Olympic events, the various US federal agencies will support the Diplomatic Security Service, the State Department agency traditionally in charge of the security of US diplomats abroad or of US citizens at major events abroad.

Coordination with the Italian authorities

During the Olympics, the agents will therefore operate in coordination with the Italian authorities for the protection of US athletes and delegations, but without any public order function. In this context, His, like other US agencies, will operate within the Consulate General in Milan to provide support for the activities of the Diplomatic Security Service and Italy 'in the process of verifying and mitigating risks from transnational criminal organisations'. It will therefore be a collaboration at the operations room level. "All security operations remain under Italian authority" and "obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration control operations in foreign countries," explained an ICE spokesperson.

Special Agents

In total, His is staffed by more than 8,500 personnel, of whom about 6,500 are special agents, who act as qualified federal officers, often engaged in cross-border crime.