ICE and Qatari Security Forces at the Winter Olympics Put Italians on Edge

With less than a week to go until the start of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy, the topic making headlines isn’t sports. It’s security. For days, the Italian government, the city of Milan, embassies, and consulates have been trying to respond to public outcry following reports about the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Games as the agency sows chaos, violence, and death in the US.

Last week, the US Department of Homeland Security confirmed to The New York Times that ICE would accompany a US delegation to the Games. They would, according to a statement attributed to DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin, be working with a State Department team “to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations” and not to conduct immigration enforcement.

US officials claim such security measures are common for the Games and stressed ...