Immigrant groups clash with ‘White Savior’ activists

Immigrant groups have a message for their mostly white allies: Stop reporting ICE.

Fox News Digital examined days of messages in Signal chat rooms that reveal a new infighting has broken out in the anti-ICE protest industry, pitting immigrant-led organizations against predominantly White “rapid response” networks that have made tip-offs a dramatic part of anti-ICE protests.

In one dismissal, a “rapid response team” in Seattle reported that “immigrant networks were acting strangely.”

Groups from Seattle to Montgomery County, Maryland, are telling mostly white “quick reactors” to step back from the dynamic described by activists as the “White Savior” and reminding them that they are not minor actors in an “action movie” against ICE.

This past weekend, the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, a Seattle-based immigrant-led organization known locally as “WAISN,” was publicly scolded The practice of whistling sparked backlash, mostly in White liberal activist “rapid response” circles.

“WHY DON’T QUICK RESPONSE USE WHISTLES?” the group wrote in an Instagram post. he wrote, emphasizing: “We emerge not with noise or panic, but with care and responsibility.”

“This isn’t about being the loudest, bravest, or most visible person on the scene or confronting immigration officials. This is a commitment to non-violence, discipline, and harm reduction that centers on the well-being of Washington’s most vulnerable immigrant and refugee committees,” the post continued.

The message was a clear directive: Drop the whistles.

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Fox News Digital reviewed internal Signal chat messages from rapid response groups in the Seattle area and showed that rejection of whistles triggered open hostility.

“We believe in whistles, people want whistles. Nothing changes” [sic] No matter what WAISN says,” one participant wrote in a group called “WA Whistles.”

The dispute escalated further this week when Snohomish County Indivisible in Washington state told followers it would comply with the guidance and “pause distribution of whistle kits.” The local group is a division of Indivisible, the powerful national nonprofit that received $7.26 million from 2018 to 2023 from billionaire George Soros’ Democratic Party-aligned Open Society Foundations.

In a striking admission, the Indivisible chapter warned against activists positioning themselves as saviors and falling into the “White Savior” dynamic. He added boldface text to explain his point.

“Whistles are complex to use and we recognize this decision may be disappointing,” the Indivisible division said. “It is crucial that we avoid falling into the ‘White Savior’ dynamic, centering ourselves as saviors, acting on communities rather than with them, or prioritizing feeling helpful over building real, shared power.”

For months, reporting has been the tactic of choice among mostly white emergency responders in cities like Minneapolis, Chicago, New York and Seattle. Activists used whistles to alert neighborhoods to the presence of federal immigration officers, disrupting operations and creating public pressure.

A “quick responder” in the Seattle group called the group’s concerns “vaguely dismissive,” arguing that the dog whistles might be “traumatic,” but they’re certainly “no worse than actually being kidnapped or watching it happen in front of your house.”

Others described the immigrant-led nonprofit as self-interested and risk-averse. One person belittled the “immigrant rights nonprofit,” while another complained about “careers at nonprofits” who “don’t put the cause before their work.”

The Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network is a tax-deductible organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code and had $3 million in revenue in 2024, according to its own report. The last publicly available tax return. The Indivisible Project is a 501(c)(4) political nonprofit that raised $10.4 million in 2024. latest tax return. He owns Indivisible Civics Inc., a political 501(c)(3) nonprofit that raised $5.2 million in 2024. latest tax return.

In a separate commentary, long-term nonprofit employees were mocked as drinking the “koolaid” and labeled non-violent, disciplined approaches as “feed coded.”

WA Whisles told Fox News Digital that the group “respects” the local immigrant organization’s decision “not to use whistles in rapid response.” He added: “Individual comments made in our chats do not reflect WA Whistles as a whole. We respect everyone’s first amendment right to self-expression.”

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Anti-ICE “rapid response teams” whistle to warn residents as federal immigration agents raid a home in Minneapolis, Minn., on Jan. 13, 2026. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Some activists, who call themselves “printing dwarfs” because they produce whistles with 3D printers, said they would remove the group’s contact number from their materials. Only a few participants responded to the criticism; One of them said he was “very disturbed” by the “derogatory remarks” directed at the migrant organisation.

Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network spoke openly about the risks. The group said whistle-blowing tactics in Washington state “increase fear, attract unwanted attention, and interfere with rapid response efforts.” He did not respond to a request for comment.

“We are committed to taking direction from organizations that have longevity, trust and expertise in this business; we do not have that experience and cannot assume we know any better,” it said in a statement.

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A woman blows her whistle at U.S. Border Patrol agents at a gas station in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 21, 2026. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

The debate also reveals ideological fault lines. Since last summer, groups such as the People’s Forum, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Democratic Socialists of America have been promoting whistle-blowing as part of a broader conflict with U.S. law enforcement. They were inspired by whistleblowing tactics used by socialist and communist labor union groups in Europe.

The People’s Forum and the Socialism and Liberation Party are funded by American-born tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, who lives in Shanghai and supports groups that have made it their business to incite unrest and protests in the United States with a pro-China agenda.

“Did you hear a whistle? It could just be ICE!” the Party for Socialism and Liberation wrote in a post. The Seattle whistle group is using templates that the Public Forum distributes through a group called “ICE Out of New York.”

The Washington state group echoed the warning from immigrant-led groups in Maryland, which issued an anti-whistle edict last month, pointedly appealing to “white allies” who they reminded were not playing cameo roles in an “action movie” using their whistles as weapons of power and authority.

One Instagram postThe Montgomery County Immigrant Rights Collective, along with other local immigrant-led groups including the Central Maryland Immigrant Rights Collective, the Prince George County Immigrant Rights Collective, the “Immigration Coalition,” “Immigrant Solidarity Mutual Aid,” and “UndocuRebels,” published an anti-whistle message titled “WHY DON’T WE USE WHISTLES IN RAPID RESPONSE.” did not return a request for comment.

“Particularly for white allies,” they wrote, “whistles may represent a subconscious desire for authority, protection, or control in moments of crisis, but the rapid response is not about assuming authority. It is about showing up to your community with discipline, humility, and restraint. When we question the decisions made by those affected, we risk centering our own comfort over the people affected.”

“Noise does not equal effectiveness,” they said.

“START WITH REALITY (NOT HEROIC),” they wrote to the music of a popular protest song, “Que me deruelvan la tierra,” meaning “Give me back my land.”

“This is not an action movie. You don’t get into a one-on-one fight with ICE,” they wrote.

They boldly stated: “And you are not at the center of this situation.”

They noted that his anti-snitch stance was shaped by interviews with “more than 120 community members” along with families “who have experienced ICE, detention, surveillance, and state violence.” After consulting with community members, the unanimous conclusion was: Don’t use whistles.

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Detroit, Michigan, Detroit Community Council Volunteers put together whistle kits. The whistles are designed to alert others in the community when immigration officers are nearby. These volunteers are creating a bilingual tip sheet for dealing with immigration agents. (Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The Maryland coalition warned that whistles could “activate already unstable ICE agents,” “make it more difficult to document and obtain information,” “increase the likelihood of aggression toward bystanders or the detainee,” and “create confusion” for community members and children.

They also noted the disproportionate impacts on “Black and Brown communities” who were already “overexposed to chronic noise pollution” and linked it to PTSD, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and heart disease.

Perhaps most obvious is the group’s rejection of symbolism itself. Whistles have historically been associated with military and police operations, including “repressions, raids and disappearances,” especially in developing countries, it said.

“They were not tools used by oppressed societies. “These were tools used against them,” they said, emphasizing this idea in bold letters.

In the new conflict between immigrant-led groups and mostly white activist allies, immigrant leaders have warned that tactics aimed at signaling solidarity could easily reproduce “state power” voices.

But in the trenches, the mostly White “allies” continued to whist and reduce guidance, saying they would continue business as usual.

By midweek WA Whisles made its stubborn position public. sending “Whistles work,” read a message on Instagram.

He claimed moral superiority by declaring, “They are a call to courage and a resolution to care loudly.”

One user then asked for “brighter colored whistles that can work around the neck as a symbol of resistance that everyone can see throughout the day.”

Fox News Digital’s Kiera McDonald and Hannah Brennan contributed to this report.

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