U.S. Vice President JD Vance was loudly booed during the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Milan amid anti‑ICE protests.
It was a split‑screen moment that underscored how immigration clashes at home reverberated onto the world stage.
Vance drew rare derision at the opening ceremony when his face appeared on the stadium’s big screen. Spectators erupted into boos.
The reaction came amid global criticism of U.S. immigration policies and local fears about ICE‑affiliated personnel accompanying the American delegation.
The jeers also unfolded against a backdrop of sustained anti‑ICE protests throughout Milan. In the days leading up to the ceremony, hundreds of demonstrators marched through the city carrying “ICE out” signs.
Protesters additionally condemned the recent deployment of Homeland Security Investigations personnel associated with ICE to support American officials during the Games — a move that Milan’s mayor publicly rebuked.
Mayor Giuseppe Sala called ICE a “militia that kills,” according to CBS Mornings.
U.S. Olympic officials insisted that no ICE agents were embedded with Team USA, emphasizing that Olympic security operations remained separate.
While protests played out in Italy, New Jersey officials are battling the Trump administration over what they describe as political retaliation intertwined with immigration policy disputes.
The administration had frozen federal funding for the $16 billion Gateway Tunnel Project — a cornerstone of Northeast rail infrastructure — in what state officials alleged was reprisal not only for broader political disagreements, but also for New Jersey’s longstanding protocols limiting cooperation with federal civil immigration enforcement.
On Feb. 6, a federal judge issued a temporary order blocking the administration from withholding Gateway funds, allowing construction to continue.
