Dozens of people gathered at the Japanese American Citizens League Hall in Monterey on Friday, Nov. 14 to assemble whistle kits for distribution in the community. Indivisible Monterey hosted “Whistlemania.” The movement originated in large cities like Chicago and Los Angeles to alert people about the potential presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in their communities.
“It doesn’t really matter the size of the city, because our whistles are very loud, and they can be heard up to two miles away,” says Megan Whilden, one of the organizers.
Jack Holmgren, a former immigration attorney and Carmel resident, spearheaded Whistlemania locally, saying a whistle is a tool people can use to alert others of ICE presence in real time. “It’s also a tool that can be used for nonviolent, civil disobedient resistance by the community that doesn’t have any concern about documentation,” Holmgren adds.
Over 70 volunteers showed up, including Monterey Mayor Tyller Williamson and County Supervisor Wendy Root Askew.
“Our immigrant community is the hardest-working community in Monterey County,” says Catherine Fanoe, a volunteer from Big Sur who attended the event and whose husband and son are agricultural growers. “Trump is the real threat to this country, not immigrants working to feed their families to make a better life for their kids,” she added.
Each kit includes a whistle; a red card with information about one’s rights; and information on the Solidarity Network, which runs a hotline and deploys teams of volunteer observers to verify suspected ICE presence.