To stand up to ICE agents, some Chicagoans are arming themselves with whistles

Yesenia Villegas is not the politically active type.

But after federal immigration agents fatally shot her uncle, Silverio Villegas, in a traffic stop last month, she was desperate to do something.

“It put the whole family on edge,” Villegas said. “Everyone's tense and depressed. It just feels like we are not welcome here.”

So she began going to anti-ICE protests and volunteering for Belmont Cragin United, a local community group. It organized a series of events throughout the Northwest Side this week called "Whistlemania," where hundreds of volunteers like Villegas packed whistles — and pamphlets on how to use them — into small Ziplock bags.

“The fact that we finished assembling a bunch of these packets so quickly, it gives me a little hope,” she said.

Across the city, a growing chorus of high-pitched whistles have become an unlikely soundtrack to the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” deportation campaign. And a way for Chicagoans to fight back against what many see as overly aggressive immigration arrests, as people are picked up outside of schools, churches and courthouses.

Whistle sounds are in the background of many videos showing ICE activity circulating on social media, as local residents have been using them to warn vulnerable neighbors when federal immigration agents are in their area. The whistling also serves as a call for people to converge around ICE activity and document it.

Though the whistles are just a small piece of plastic, community organizers like Teresa Magaña say they are “making a huge difference.”

“In these videos, you are now seeing [ICE agents] driving away, or they don't hang out long,” Magaña said. “And as soon as the cameras come up, the aggressiveness eases.”

The idea of using whistles came to Magaña in August. She was sitting in her car, scrolling on social media, when she stumbled upon a video from an activist in Los Angeles who was organizing against a series of ICE raids there this summer.

In the video, activist Marquez Acuna described how whistles helped him form a caravan of cars around a group of ICE agents that eventually drove them out of the area.

“It absolutely worked,” Acuna says in the video, “so go get yourself a whistle. You can help save someone’s life.”

Magaña knew what she had to do. She went online and purchased roughly 1,500 whistles. An artist, she also put her printmaking skills to use and made a foldable pamphlet with a cover that says: “Form a crowd, stay loud.”

Inside, the pamphlet describes the whistle system the L.A. activist had devised.

If ICE agents are nearby, it instructs people to blow three short bursts. If they’re actively detaining someone, users should sound the alarm by blowing one long, continuous whistle.

Magaña began to distribute the whistle kits in late August. From there, they spread all over Chicago. Now, community groups citywide are printing her pamphlet by the hundreds and hosting events for volunteers to fold and distribute them along with the whistles.

The events are giving concerned residents a chance to feel as though they are contributing to the safety of their communities at a time when federal immigration tactics have grown increasingly combative.

That’s how Isabella Murk, a teacher from Albany Park, found herself attending a packed Whistlemania event at an Irving Park restaurant on Tuesday evening.

“This (past) weekend was the first time that I felt really scared in my community because there was tear gas, and it seemed more violent than it had been,” Murk said, “And so I wanted to get more involved as I saw things escalating.”

Whistlemania drew so many volunteers that at some events, organizers had to turn people away. Jackie Birov had to drive to another Whistlemania location in Avondale just to get in.

But she said it was worth going the extra distance because “I care about the city, I care about this country, and I care about the people that are being targeted and brutalized [by ICE agents].”

The last few weeks she said she’s peacefully protested at the Broadview processing facility and tried to document ICE activity while driving around. But “I have not had a whistle this whole time,” she said. “It's kind of silly that I don't. I've just been in my car honking or yelling.”

That night Birov left the event with her own whistle.

“Everyone around me has one,” she said. “I'm glad I finally have one, too.”

Anna Savchenko is a reporter for WBEZ.