U.S. ambassador Tilman Fertitta was scheduled to meet Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi later Tuesday to clarify Olympics plans, Tajani said.
The controversy erupted Monday, when Attilio Fontana, president of Lombardy, one of the northern regions hosting the Games, wrongly suggested that ICE agents would merely assist with the security of U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who are scheduled to attend the opening ceremony at Milan’s San Siro stadium on Feb. 6.
ICE later sought to clarify its role, saying in a statement: “At the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is supporting the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and the host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations. All security operations remain under Italian authority.”
HSI, which maintains a presence in Italy and many other nations, is part of ICE but separate from the subagency that handles deportations domestically in the U.S.
Like other parts of the U.S. federal government, HSI has played a bigger role in supporting the deportations-focused Enforcement and Removal Operations arm of ICE as the Trump administration has ramped up its immigration crackdown, but the agency typically investigates criminal wrongdoing, including child exploitation, human-trafficking and cybercrimes cases.
DHS did not respond to a question clarifying whether new agents would be sent to Milan or Cortina d’Ampezzo, or whether it would only involve agents at the Rome field office.