Whistle becomes key tool in protests against Trump’s ICE crackdown | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

When Justin Vernon of Bon Iver appeared on the red carpet at the Grammy awards he was wearing an accessory that has become a must-carry for activists in neighborhoods targeted by ICE: a whistle.

The whistle has become a key part in the defense against Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown, used to alert people to the presence of agents. But it has also become a target for the right, who have branded whistles “hearing-loss-causing machines” and said the act of blowing a whistle may constitute “assault”.

“Those women absolutely went out of their way to cross the street and arguably commit assault against the officers with whistles in the ears,” the rightwing streamer Steven Crowder weighed in last week, referring to women at the scene of Alex Pretti’s killing in Minneapolis.

Crowder wasn’t alone. Mike Cernovich, who like Crowder is part of a conservative movement that has branded liberals “snowflakes”, claimed last week that whistles “should be considered a violent weapon”, as the right coalesced in opposition to the device.

The whistle has gained such attacked status due to people using it to support undocumented immigrants across the country. Protesters have developed a straight-forward code for when they encounter immigration agents. “If you see ICE in the neighborhood, blow your whistle in short bursts. If you witness ICE detaining someone, blow the whistle in a long, repeated pattern,” is how Hands Off NYC, an advocacy group active in New York, characterizes it.

Its use has spread across the country. In Chicago people have held “whistle parties” where they hand out the devices, and one group has distributed more than 150,000 whistles across the country, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Activists in cities ranging from Milwaukee to New York, Portland and Los Angeles have done the same.

The ubiquity of whistles in immigration standoffs has led them to be castigated, however.

Megyn Kelly, a rightwing podcaster, suggested last week that whistleblowing contributed to Pretti being shot dead by immigration agents and said the use of whistles “needs to stop”.

“Now, some are saying that’s fine. That actually is interference. You – if you came out on your front lawn and just blew a coach’s whistle at the top of your lungs all day, you would be cited by the police under the local noise ordinances. It would be a disturbance of the peace. That’s what these people are doing. And no doubt they contributed to the chaotic atmosphere that ultimately led Alex Pretti to die,” Media Matters recorded Kelly as saying. Kelly was also upset by Vernon wearing his whistle to the Grammys.

Cernovich, meanwhile, wrote on social media: “High IQ people don’t respond well to shrill noises. From smoke alarms to those hearing loss causing machines that terrorists use against ICE. Tbh those things should be considered a violent weapon. They damage hearing for life.”

It hasn’t just been activists using whistles. City and state lawmakers wore whistles at a press conference at Minneapolis city hall last week, while the Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib used a whistle in the House of Representatives on Thursday to illustrate her opposition to Trump’s immigration crackdown.

“Speaker Johnson says: ‘ICE is doing what ICE is designed to do,’” Tlaib said.

“ICE was built on violence and racism. It cannot be reformed. ICE must be abolished. And Kristi Noem [the secretary of homeland security] must be impeached.”

Interviewed at the Grammys, Vernon said: “The whistle is there to represent all the observers in Minneapolis. They are out there on the street corner, 30 below, and they are warning their neighbors of danger. And I think music is a beautiful thing. We make it with soft hands, though. I think the real work of humanity and empathy are those people that see that and they don’t stay at home. They get out on the street and they are taking care of each other and nothing could inspire me more.”