Yves here. This post describes a clever and non-violent method, the distribution and use of whistles, to impede ICE round-ups. But I wish there was more news about actual and better yet effective ICE resistance methods.
Back in the day, during the 2014 Hong Kong protests over China’s plans to pre-screen candidates for the Hong Kong chief executive election, many sites, including ours, chronicled some of the innovative techniques. The campaign was called the Umbrella Movement over its use of umbrellas to block pepper spray, which they also used to help hide protestor identities and surge against police. Other new or new-ish methods were using traffic cones to contain tear gas canisters and laser pointers (the latter to impede facial recognition as well as deter police). So this sort of thing can be effective, at least short term.
I hope that the fate of the Umbrella Movement is not a precursor to the fate of ICE demonstrations. DW describes long form how the Chinese government prevailed through increasing the use of force.
New York City mayor elect Mamdani has made noise that he will Do Something about ICE sweeps, but it’s not clear what that could amount to. It will be a while, if ever, before he brings the NYPD to heel, and he would need their muscle to credibly stare down ICE.
By Gwynne Hogan. Originally published at THE CITY on November 17, 2025
The feds were gone, along with the men they’d detained, and the volunteers went through the area, passing out whistles and know-your-rights information as they warned people about the street raid.
The alert proved timely: the officers returned twice more that afternoon. By then, neighbors were warning each other by blowing the whistles, according to a volunteer with Queens Neighborhoods United, one of many small groups that have begun tracking ICE activity in recent months.
“It was kind of a beautiful thing,” the person recalled, even as they seven people were arrested in the neighborhood over the course of that afternoon.
Sightings of federal agents appear to be increasing across the city, including arrests in Washington Heights this week,with additional sightings in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. (ICE has not issued arrest data since July.)
ICE activity on New York City streets has not yet approached the intensity of raids in Chicago that have involved tear gas and even agents rappelling down a high-rise building into private apartments. But New Yorkers responding to raids and bracing for more are taking a cue from activists there, passing out thousands of whistles in recent weeks as a low-tech way to alert people of ICE activity when they see it.
“It could be as easy as a noisemaker,” said Whitney Hu, a community activist and organizer with South Brooklyn Mutual Aid which passed out hundreds of whistles after learning about their use in Chicago. “It’s really hard for them to sneak up and scare people because they have like 20 citizens following them around with a fog horn, and that’s technically not against the law.”
In Sunset Park, where Hu is based, younger activists are using Signal chats, the Chinese community is mostly on WeChat and Latino immigrants are largely on WhatsApp, Hu said — but everyone knows how to use a whistle.
And the code is not complicated. Short bursts indicate an ICE sighting. Long whistles indicate agents making arrests. If you hear the whistle and you’re undocumented, said Hu, “you hide. And if you’re somebody who’s not, you go to the street.”
Hu is among a number of New Yorkers who are stocking up and passing out whistles in recent weeks.
“The day after the Canal Street raid I ordered a thousand,” said Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, the deputy director of the Street Vendor Project, which has started handing out whistles to street vendors, along with know-your-rights materials, and information on how to distinguish federal immigration agents from city police or Sanitation officers.
‘Resistance Energy’
On Saturday, community groups passed out another 10,000 whistles as part of a day of action put on by Hands Off NYC, a coalition that includes dozens of unions, community groups, churches and political groups, hosting a day of action and events across the city.
Chicagoans started to use whistles to raise flag ICE activity for neighbors as Trump’s Operation Midway Blitz began in September, sending hundreds of federal agents to arrest immigrants on the streets of the Windy City. The loud whistling served to alert people at risk of arrest within earshot of the federal agents. The tactic has spread to other cities including San Francisco, Portland, and Los Angeles.
Asked about the use of whistles, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said their officers are “highly trained.”
“In the face [of] rioting, doxxing, and physical attacks they have shown professionalism, they are not afraid of loud noises and whistles,” she wrote.
Much of the ICE enforcement activity in New York City thus far under President Donald Trump has happened inside government buildings like 26 Federal Plaza, where immigrants show up to check in with ICE for required appointments, or for hearings in their deportation proceedings in immigration court.
But advocates in New York are bracing for that to change in the coming weeks, with Trump and members of his administration promoting a coming clash with Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
The dramatic military-style raid on Canal Street last month offered a glimpse of what could be in store for New York City, though activists like Hu say they were inspired by the swarm of New Yorkers who quickly mobilized to confront federal agents.
One iconic image in particular, a woman in a polka-dotted dress blocking a road while giving agents in an armored truck the middle finger, has become a symbol of anti-ICE organizing in the city. The New York Immigration Coalition is even auctioning off the dress the woman wore.
“It’s that hooligan energy, that resistance energy,” Hu said. “That’s the energy we need to be bringing.”
Thank God the USA is not an oppressive authoritarian state like the People’s Republic of China or the Russian Federation.
How does one distinguish between a group of armed thugs intent on robbery or kidnapping versus a team of highly trained federal agents? Just asking for a friend.
I can’t tell the diff either. But I highly doubt that the plain-clothed, masked govt. thugs are “highly trained”. They look like a street gang who have been given a green light to violate US citizens’ so-called legal rights (with impunity). One does not need to be highly trained to act like a lawless @$$hole.
(Also, I don’t recall the Chinese police wearing masks and plain-clothes. It’s been too long, but I do vaguely recall reports (or speculation?) that the good people at the CIA/MI6/NED etc. were involved in the protests in HK back in ’14. But that would be considered a wild conspiracy theory…)
There have been recent instances where robbers and rapists have dressed up as ICE agents. There has always been examples, including murderers, when the criminal dressed as a cop, but the requirement to show a badge, often a warrant, often unmasked, and usually clear markings or a uniform, put some limits on the perpetrator, which I don’t see anymore.
It is really only a matter of time before some ICE agents get shot, perhaps even by the police, if they refuse to show any evidence of legitimacy. Even in Texas, even against minorities, there have been a few cases where the shooters got off or even where the cops got into legal trouble. It is rare, but even in law and order areas there are still some limitations to how egregiously unlawful the police can be.
So what happens if a couple of agents do act exactly like some gang members and get themselves dead? Keep in mind that I am thinking of the 3 AM, no warrant, no identification, perhaps no clear verbal warning, with the police shooting for no good reason besides nervousness, on a family with children? And yes, examples such as this have gotten police shot and the shooter is not convicted. Most often because of the War on Drugs. Again, pretty rare, but it does happen.
After which, I can see the President, ICE, and some of his supporters insisting that it’s a conspiracy, or anti American, or something instead of law enforcement gone lawlessly amuck.
This is why we have the rule of law and due process, which some people believed are quaint anachronisms.
It may not help too much with the actual deployment, but why don’t cities/counties/states pass ordinances mandating all law enforcement personnel (regardless of affiliation) to clearly show their face, branch, name and ID/badge numbers?
And weren’t all these fascists the same ones that fought mask mandates during Covid? Now they seem to have no problem with them.
Chicago, NYC, DC and others should mandate all law enforcement, regardless of branch, are prohibited from wearing face coverings. They could also require name, badge # and affiliation be clearly marked on all clothing worn and vehicles used.
@motorslug
I couldn’t agree more. Bullies love to hide behind anonymity.
The ICE thing in Chicago metro is fading due to lack of interest. Don’t know why T sent them in the first place. The people there were all good with the status quo and vote accordingly. A couple of H.L. Menken and Einstein quotes come to mind.
Contrarywise, how long before ICE cosplayers pull up in an unmarked van to the local jewelry store and start ziptying the people inside and empty the showcases? Sounds to me like a business opportunity waiting to happen?
Hmm. Men hiding at the sight of federal agents. Using noisemakers and apps like Signal to warn each other about raids. Anyone unlucky to be spotted is dragged away, quite possibly in a sort of a minibus…
…if I didn’t know better, I’d think I were reading the hundred and fifteenth or so account of “busification” in Ukraine. How fortunate we are that we are most certainly, definitely, absolutely not turning into a staggeringly corrupt, perpetually crumbling and increasingly neo-fascist puppet regime. I mean, whose puppet would we be – those aliens from the X-Files?..
“It’s really hard for them to sneak up and scare people because they have like 20 citizens following them around with a fog horn, and that’s technically not against the law.”
That statement filled my heart with joy and brought tears of laughter. Yes! all good and decent people can fight this modern day Gestapo – and the coming Gestapos in all our countries – if we are committed to coming together and acting as a community. Stock up on cheap whistles!
The YesMen (or at least Andy Bichlbaum) were also “witnessing disappearances,” hearings for immigrants caught up in raids – https://news.theyesmen.org/p/the-transformative-power-of-immigration.
I think more creativity will manifest over time in responses to what is happening. I believe even information sharing can act in some tiny way to begin to turn the tide.