Why the whistle became the essential tool of anti-Ice protests | Opinion
In early February, ICE agents aggressively entered a Minneapolis park parking lot, according to a video posted on Reddit, despite being not allowed on park grounds. Surrounded by people recording with their phones and blowing whistles, a woman approaches to confront them. Ignoring her, the agents release chemical irritants that fill the park with smoke.
This incident is among many documented on R/ICE Watch, a platform that tracks ICE activities. The whistles calling neighbors to action symbolize a broader, low-tech resistance movement that has spread from Chicago to Minneapolis and now Seattle, changing how communities oppose aggressive federal immigration enforcement. Having written a book on how sound resources resistance, I see this grassroots movement as an intriguing development in the use of sound for collective action.
When the whistle is blown, it amplifies collective presence and makes audible what authorities prefer to silence. When someone spots an ICE vehicle or federal agent, they blow the whistle. Its sharp, focused sound cuts through the crowd and reaches the auditor. Many whistles (including human whistling and referee whistles) sit roughly in the 2–4 kHz range, where human hearing is particularly sensitive, so they feel disproportionately loud compared to their actual energy.
The sudden burst of sound alerts neighbors, and within seconds ICE transforms from an invisible threat in unmarked cars into something the community can collectively respond to and resist.
The sound’s ability to fill space increases witnesses and prompts witnesses to pull out cameras, decentralizing resistance.
It disperses risk and increases perspectives on the event. When the administration claimed that Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen shot and killed by ICE agents in January while trying to protect a pepper-sprayed woman, was an “assassin,” multiple videos contradicted their story.
Whistling is a simple, low-cost and difficult-to-suppress method. Plastic or metal whistles are widely available on Amazon, distributed by some nonprofits or 3-D printed. Small and portable, they ensure readiness for any situation.
The key advantage is accessibility: unlike protest tactics requiring training, physical presence, or technical skills, anyone can quickly learn to use and interpret a whistle.
The small, portable, and cheap device provides a perfect metaphor for the people’s concern. In everyday life, individuals blow the whistle on illegal or corrupt practices, signaling wrongdoing. Just as a whistle alerts players to a foul in basketball, people step forward to draw attention to actions they believe are wrong. It is no wonder that so many elected officials were quick to take up the symbol in Minneapolis.
The rapid, high-pitched sound makes other operations difficult. As Minnesota activist Patty O’Keef remarked, the point of the whistle is to “distract them, to occupy their time, [because] The more time they’re trying to get away from us, the less time they’re spending searching for people to abduct.” ICE officers and their supporters have publicly acknowledged that the whistles used by Minneapolis protesters have significantly disrupted their operations, essentially admitting the effectiveness of this sound approach. Pro-Trump figures speaking on behalf of ICE agents have also claimed that the high-pitched whistles were perhaps overloading neural processing circuits, leading to decrements in mental performance.
And when protesters use non-violent tactics and authorities respond with disproportionate force — pushing, shoving, pepper spray, smoke grenades, bullets — the stark contrast reveals the regime’s brutality and undermines its legitimacy.
As authoritarianism adapts to digital surveillance and dangerous media control, dissent must adapt, too. In 2026, we must turn to a small plastic household item that allows everyone to be part of the resistance.
Justin Eckstein, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Pacific Lutheran University and affiliate faculty at the University of Washington. He is the author of “Sound Tactics”, a recent book that examines the political and cultural potential of sound as a mode of resistance.