San Francisco neighborhoods find new way to coordinate against ICE deportations
Locals in San Francisco, California, have begun passing out whistles to communicate and coordinate against ICE deportations.
Activists and organizations have started distributing whistles for local residents to coordinate against the federal government’s immigration enforcement efforts, SFGate reported.
“By following the same whistle code, locals can communicate from afar: Three short whistles signal that ICE is nearby, and one long whistle means that somebody is being detained,” SFGate reported.
Frameline, the nonprofit behind San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ Frameline film festival, has been stocking “whistle stops” in the city, where people can pick up free whistles and join anti-ICE efforts. The organization explained in a post on Instagram that it was inspired by efforts in Chicago.
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In an email to SFGATE, Roxie Theater manager Gabriella Siaton, whose venue is one of multiple participating whistle stops, said the theater’s initial supply of whistles was gone within a day of arrival.
“Prior to this, I had not heard about the whistle code,” she wrote. “I knew there were different sharings on social media regarding ICE agents being spotted in the Mission, but I appreciate how the whistle allows for a more instant and in-the-moment response.”
This trend appears to have begun with Chicago’s local anti-ICE efforts, where there are entire group meetups to assemble whistles to give out.
“The sound of a whistle tells immigrants and other vulnerable community members to run away while also urging fellow neighbors to gather in a crowd and run toward the scene to film arrests,” the California news outlet wrote.
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Similar efforts reportedly date back long before the immigration crackdowns of 2025, all the way back at least to the 1970s, where LGBTQ+ groups used whistles to alert people of alleged hate crimes in progress.
“We were inspired by the bold legacy of queer resistance — from San Francisco’s Butterfly Brigade blowing whistles in the Castro to defend each other from violence to the community organizing coming out of Chicago now,” Frameline’s executive director Allegra Madsen told SFGate.
