With blood on the streets and burning barricades in the Twin Cities, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has hit front pages across the world. European politicians are increasingly uneasy about the Atlantic alliance, eager to distance themselves from the perceived excesses of the Donald Trump administration. If the US president’s record arming a genocide in Gaza and strong-arming erstwhile allies through tariff warfare could be more or less tolerated, the invasion of Venezuela and hawkish comments against Greenland have put NATO itself at risk. The cold-blooded daylight assassinations of Renée Good and Alex Pretti have further pushed Washington beyond the pale for politicians and leaders of Europe’s center left — even while the murders of Keith Porter, Victor Manuel Diaz, and many others at the hands of ICE seem not to have been worthy of attention.

It was in this context that Italy’s Interior Ministry came under sharp criticism last week when it was reported that Vice President J. D. Vance would be accompanied by a gang of ICE thugs when he visits Milan for the Winter Olympic Games that opened this Friday, October 6. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi oscillated between denying that ICE would be present and declaring that they would be limited to security roles — implying that this would ease concerns about them being on Italian soil. All of the Italian opposition parties and the main left-wing trade union criticized ICE’s proposed presence, and on Saturday held a demonstration in Milan in solidarity with Minnesotans.

Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe “Beppe” Sala — close to neoliberal-centrist former premier Matteo Renzi — described ICE as “a militia that kills, that enters people’s homes signing their own warrants. Clearly they’re not welcome in Milan.” He added, “What I wonder is, for just once could we say no to Trump? ICE’s agents mustn’t come to Italy because they’re simply not aligned with our democratic method of guaranteeing security.” Left-wing European MPs have even issued a letter to the European Commission asking for EU travel bans on all ICE agents — and indeed, in the end, it seems no ICE agents have been sent to Milan.