Blow the Whistle on ICE

A little more than three years ago, I moved to Santa Fe from Evanston, Illinois. It is with a combination of rage and deep sadness that I have been observing Evanston—an otherwise quiet, inner-ring suburb of Chicago—become a hotspot in Trump’s war on Chicago, complete with tear gas, pepper balls, and ICE’s “Kavanaugh Abductions” of brown-skinned people.

On social media, I’ve seen mobile phone footage of a man being tackled in an aisle of the Home Depot I used to shop at. The voiceover of the person taking the footage said this was the fifth person she had seen abducted in Home Depot that day. I’ve seen footage of unmarked cars screech to a halt and fully-armed ICE goons hop out at the intersection of Broadway and Bryn Mawr, one block from my first apartment in Chicago. It goes on and on.

But Chicago is not idly standing by. A movement has started to distribute whistle packets for citizens to use when they see ICE active in their proximity. Three short blows will signal “ICE is in the area” and long constant blows signal when ICE is actually abducting someone. The whistling gives at-risk people time to find safety. And it calls neighbors and bystanders out into the street where they can document and draw attention to ICE’s abhorrent action. The distribution and use of whistles in Chicago is becoming so widespread that in more and more recent footage on social media you can hear the whistling of activists in the background.

This morning, an article appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican that covered the action Dave Bazell led last Saturday at Home Depot, calling attention to that chain store’s lack of action as ICE has been raiding brown-skinned and hispanic-speaking people in their aisles and parking lots. The article describes how ICE is active in Santa Fe but has been doing so in a more subtle way than what they are doing in Chicago. ICE is active in Santa Fe, we just don’t see it. We can’t let this happen. We can’t let our friends, neighbors, and fellow community members simply disappear from our streets and our lives without taking notice. The use of whistles will at least allow activists to observe, call attention to, document, and perhaps even get information (like a name or address) that will help get legal aid in touch with family members. And it just might be possible that the more we are able to “be loud and form a crowd,” the more likely ICE might just drive away, as they appear to be doing in video from Evanston posted above.

My hope is that wearing a whistle will not only be practical and helpful, but will also become a symbol of our resistance, a sign to our neighbors that we will not turn away but will do what we can to help them. It will become a visible signal of solidarity and action in our community. So get a whistle, learn how to use it, and wear it everywhere you go. We will have whistle kits to distribute at Speakers’ Corner tomorrow as well as at our regular meeting on Monday.

Blow the whistle on ICE, and be loud and form a crowd.