San Francisco neighborhoods use whistles to coordinate against ICE raids

Locals in San Francisco, California, began whistling to communicate and coordinate against ICE deportations.

Activists and organizations began blowing the whistle on local residents to coordinate against the federal government’s immigration enforcement efforts. SFGate reported.

“By following the same whistle code, locals can communicate remotely: Three short blasts signal ICE is nearby, and one long blast means someone is in custody,” SFGate said. he said.

frame line, The nonprofit behind San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ Frameline film festival is stocking “whistle stops” around the city where people can get free whistles and join anti-ICE efforts. In a post on Instagram, the organization explained that it was inspired by the efforts in Chicago.

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Gabriella Siaton, manager of the Roxie Theatre, whose venue is one of many whistle stops, said in an email to SFGATE that the theater ran out of its initial supply of whistles a day after arrival.

“I had never heard of whistle code before this,” he wrote. “I knew there were various posts on social media about ICE agents being spotted at the Mission, but I appreciate that the whistle allowed for a quicker and more immediate response.”

This trend appears to have started with Chicago’s local anti-ICE efforts, where entire group meetings were held to blow the whistle.

“The sound of a whistle tells immigrants and other vulnerable community members to flee, while also encouraging other neighbors to gather in the crowd and rush toward the scene to film the arrests,” the California news outlet reported. he wrote.

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Large CA Operations Command, center, marched with federal agents to the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building after U.S. Border Patrol agents staged a show of force outside the Japanese American National Museum, where Gov. Gavin Newsom held a redistricting press conference Aug. 14 in Los Angeles, California. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Similar efforts reportedly date back well before the 2025 immigration restrictions, at least as far back as the 1970s, when LGBTQ+ groups would whistle to warn people of hate crimes being committed.

“We are inspired by the courageous legacy of queer resistance, from San Francisco’s Butterfly Brigade whistling at the Castro to defend each other against violence to the community organizing emerging from Chicago,” Allegra Madsen, Frameline’s managing director, told SFGate.

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Hundreds of anti-ICE protesters gather outside the USCIS San Francisco Field Office on Sansome Street on April 14, 2025. (Tayfun Coşkun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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