Chicagoans send 150,000 whistles to cities besieged by federal immigration agents

When federal agents arrived in Minneapolis, Chicagoans Emily Hilleren and Lauren Vega kept doing what they had been doing for months: getting their hands on as many whistles as they could find.

They assembled care package containing 5,000 whistles, zines with illustrated instructions on how to use the whistles to warn neighbors of the presence of ICE, 10,000 know-your-rights cards and $9,000 in donations for community organizations in Minneapolis.

“We loaded up my hatchback,” said Hilleren, an Albany Park resident, as she got ready to set up for a whistle party in Minneapolis after the two made the hourslong drive Friday night.

As thousands of federal agents arrived in Minnesota in the latest chapter in President Donald Trump's deportation campaign, Chicagoans are once again stepping up to assist cities facing the same fight they fought last year.

‘Sense of camaraderie’

Chicago started by learning from Los Angeles, where the Trump administration's first waves of immigration operations began, said Teresa Magaña, co-founder of Pilsen Arts & Community House. The city paid it forward when U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino sent agents to North Carolina, quickly sending anything that made a sound to continue the alert system.

Magaña designed the zine instructing people on how to use whistles to alert the presence of ICE. The zines have been copied nationally.

“People shouldn’t be shy or even hesitate to reach out. People are more than willing to go above and beyond with the resources and information,” Magaña said. “There’s this immediate sense of camaraderie. We know each other even though we don’t know each other.”

She said creating a template for the whistle system helped replicate the work in other cities.

“The powerful thing is because we’re following the same template, it’s made it more consistent,” Magaña said.

Hilleren starting making online orders for whistles in the early fall. Soon, she was hosting parties as part of the “Whistlemania” around the community, namely at Nighthawk, a cafe and bar.

‘They could turn out thousands’

Many cleared out stores of whistles, while others found a more reliable, cheaper, option — making the whistles themselves.

Vega began to print the whistles with her 3D printer and was able to bring 200 homemade whistles to the first party she attended.

Word spread via social media, and soon Hilleren and Vega were connecting with others who had been doing the same.

“I had a small printer, so I could put out a couple hundred, but they could turn out thousands," Vega said.

Among them was Dan Sinker, an Evanston-based writer, who said he has been into 3D printing since its early days.

Sinker also first turned to online sellers for the first few hundred whistles he distributed.

But when he learned about Hilleren and Vega’s work, he bought a printer that could produce 800 whistles from one roll of filament, which retails for about $12 — the price of about 50 whistles on online marketplaces.

“In five days I produced more whistles than I ever was able to find and purchase over the course of the fall, and for a significantly lower price,” Sinker said.

‘No other option’

With an increased capacity, and growing demand as ICE operations expanded, Hilleren and Vega began taking email orders from other locales. Pilsen Arts & Community House did the same after receiving four donated 3D printers.

Between Hilleren, Vega and the folks they've worked with, as well as Magaña's group, they have now shipped collectively more than 150,000 whistles around the country to New York City, Baltimore and New Orleans, as well as towns in Washington, Colorado, Nevada, Missouri, Ohio, Texas and Maine.

Vega said in many cases, “There are already people doing the work. Find them and look to help."

It’s part of why Sinker describes himself as a “small cog” in a loose grouping of “ad hoc printer rogues” — which themselves are part of a decentralized network of people galvanized to act by the brutality they’ve witnessed.

He said it has steeled people while bringing neighborhoods closer.

“We shouldn't have to be, but we are left to our own devices to deal with this, and we are,” Sinker said. “People are stepping up, and communities are coming together. … They come back; we’re back too. There’s no other option."

While Chicago has seen some relief, Hilleren said she has faith other cities will be there when agents inevitably swarm Chicago again.

“Right now, we’re responding to the immediate need,” Hilleren said. “We’ll learn from the people who came after us, and we’ll keep being more and more effective. … And the way we’re showing up for other cities, I think we can trust them to show up for us when the time comes.”