About three dozen people gathered at Rainier Beach’s public library Sunday afternoon to assemble “whistle kits,” a tool that activists nationwide have turned to as a means of alerting neighbors and deterring Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Advocates wrote in a small pamphlet, included in the kit, that whistles offer a quick, loud way to warn others about immigration agents in the area. Whistles make the situation “impossible to ignore,” the pamphlet reads.
Rainier Beach resident Lisa Magee organized Sunday’s event, which occurs every other week. She said the turnout Sunday represented a huge increase from previous weeks. Just five people attended the previous meeting.
“From here, the hope is we get them in the door with whistles, and then we can activate them further, encourage them to do more local organizing,” said Magee, who has organized about half a dozen similar events in South Seattle.
In a meeting room at the Rainier Beach branch library, more than 30 participants slid red whistles inside small plastic bags. Organizers with the South Seattle branch of WA Whistles gave out free Capri-Suns, water bottles and Cheetos.
Each kit contains a 3D-printed whistle, a pamphlet with tips on when to use the whistle, and a wallet-sized card with a script on how to speak to ICE agents trying to enter your home, written in both English and Amharic, one of the official languages of Ethiopia.
Magee estimated the group assembled at least 1,000 kits in about two and a half hours, far surpassing the usual goal of 500. The group distributes the kits at protests, markets and coffee shops.
Magee attributed the increase in attendance to the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother in Minneapolis who was shot to death by an ICE officer. Since the shooting, Magee said, more advocacy groups have been requesting whistle kits.
Katie Bridges, 44, of Rainier Beach, brought her four children to the event. She and her husband have had tough conversations with their kids about what to do if ICE agents visit their schools or approach their friends who are people of color.
Her children, between the ages of 9 and 15, have felt scared and curious at times while discussing intensifying immigration enforcement by President Donald Trump’s administration.
“As you're talking to kids about it, you're trying to both paint a picture of ‘You’re safe at school,’ and ‘Some kids are not safe. They are going to get taken,’ ” said Bridges, who has attended two other whistle kit-assembling events.
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