The Trump administration recently made the decision to deploy ICE agents as protection for the athletes going to the 2026 Winter Olympics Games in Milan, Italy. The decision has drawn national attention and outcry, and Heritage students are wondering if there’s any justification for the deployment.
Noah Endlich ’27 disagrees with the situation. “I think [sending ICE agents to the Olympics] is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” adding that “[The Olympics are] meant to bring the globe together and try to unite us all to watch the Olympics and relieve some of the tensions [of global politics]”, he says, adding that the presence of ICE agents at the Olympics “100%” goes against the spirit of the games.
David Pierce ’27 agrees. “[This decision] sounds an awful lot like sending our troops into a foreign country during what should be a time of peace and friendly competition,” adding, “I think that’s a really bad idea.”
Endlich also doesn’t think that ICE has any place in the Olympics, even aside from the fact that their presence goes against the spirit of the Games. “ICE is meant to deport undocumented immigrants in the United States, not be some sort of show of militancy or Trump’s personal little police force that he can boss around.”
Pierce agrees with Endlich’s assessment of ICE’s function, adding that “the whole point of ICE is supposedly to deport illegal immigrants. How are we gonna do that in Italy? There are no people illegally immigrating to the U.S. in Italy. There’s just no reason to have them there.”