By Heather Schlitz
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The sound of a shrill of whistles was recorded in a parking garage on the north side of Chicago on Tuesday, as two people opened their car doors, bound inside and got into their seats. Outside, a convoy of emergency evacuation vehicles that had arrived in the area just minutes away closed.
“We just saw a bunch of guys with whistles and they chased them away,” said Luka, a local who worked nearby and declined to give his full name.
The Trump administration in early September launched a crackdown on deportations in the Chicago area, targeting what it said were hardened criminals among immigrants in the US without legal status.
Since then, blowing the whistle has been a chicago-wide way of signaling to suggest that the US is dust and customs or US customs and US security agents are present. It warns uneducated people to flee and invites US citizens to come to the scene to record arrests, prevent Detainees.
The aggressive immigration enforcement effort – which has no deadline – has sparked widespread protests and anger among residents. Hundreds of federal agents are stationed across the third largest city in the US and its suburbs, often carrying assault rifles and wearing military Heartings. Agents with mobs dressed in muscle, arranged with a black helicopter that killed the apartment, dragged the immigrants from the cars, killed the people who brandished their guns and shot them.
Against this superior military force, whistles have become a modest but effective tool for fighting back.
“It grew like wildfire,” said Baltazar Enriquez, President of the Little Village Community Council, a community group in one of Chicago’s largest Latino communities. “If we have to block our neighborhood for the next three years, we’re willing to do that to keep our community safe.”
This group started giving whistles to people who live in the neighborhood during the summer. From then on, the constant promotion turned whistles into the defining symbol of Chicago’s opposition to the ice.
Volunteers from whistle-blowing groups and local activist groups wind up whistle-blowing at local festivals and fringes and run small free libraries. Some residents took whistles from community groups who advertised on social media – others simply bought them from dollar stores and Amazon.
“Our police officers are highly trained,” said Tricia Mclauglin, Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security at the Department of Homeland Security, and “they are not afraid of loud noises and whistles.”
Ease of use and low cost have contributed to its increasing popularity on the road and in social media. But the impact of the whistle faced the armed squads, the dynamic police force was limited.
On a quiet residential street in another northern neighborhood, residents run out of apartments and confront Ice officials as they arrest a group of tenants. Their whistles and shouts managed to draw a crowd and some of the names of those arrested were passed on to immigration rights groups, but the officers are still carrying two people.
“I’m sure I’ll be honking again later,” said Joanne Willer, an Albany Park resident who used her whistle to sound the alarm about the arrest. “It’s really annoying.”
After that, some residents of Albany Park, a neighborhood in Chicago known for its diversity that was raided by federal immigration agents earlier this month, carried a variety of streets as they walked the streets as they walked the streets.
Jordan, who declined to share his last name for fear of reprisal, took the whistle on his son’s toys.
“I’m Jewish, and I feel personally tied to what’s happening here because of our history as Jews,” Jordan said. “I feel like we’re not here supporting our neighbors, no one else is going to do it.”
(Reporting by Heather Schlitz in Chicago; Editing by Emily Schmall and Matthew Lewis)
