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Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi insisted on Wednesday that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Milan for the Olympic Games will be limited to analytical tasks and will not be operational on the ground.
"We will not see anything on national territory that corresponds to what has been seen in the American media. The concern that has inspired the controversy of recent days, which this information allows me to dispel definitively, is therefore completely unfounded," Piantedosi reiterated during his appearance before the Chamber of Deputies on the subject.
He added that "during the Milan-Cortina Games, the members of this agency will be exclusively dedicated to analysis and information exchange with the Italian authorities. After all, this is what they have been doing for years in more than 50 countries, including Italy, without anyone ever being scandalized".
Public safety and order are guaranteed exclusively by our police forces
He also stated that "ICE cannot, and will never be able to, carry out operational police activities in our national territory. In fact, public safety and order are guaranteed exclusively by our police forces. And this principle is not contradicted by the fruitful investigative collaborations that are usually activated at international level in such circumstances".
They will work only within diplomatic headquarters
The presence of ICE agents, who in the United States are responsible for the detention of migrants, provoked protests from the Italian opposition and several associations that called a demonstration in Milan.
In response to protests over its presence at the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, the Italian government held a meeting with US Ambassador to Rome Tilman J. Fertitta and later clarified that only analysts from ICE's investigative arm will arrive and not its "operational arm".
In addition, they have already announced that these members "will work exclusively inside their diplomatic headquarters" and not on Italian territory.