Communities have used loud sirens to warn people about approaching storms, tsunamis and tornadoes, but now some activists in Los Angeles are using sirens to warn about immigration agents.
Since President Trump took office, Los Angeles communities have seen a stark increase in the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, targeting business districts and neighborhoods, and some community groups have responded by looking for ways to alert residents.
For weeks, activists have been installing small — but loud — sirens across Highland Park. The purpose: to get people off the streets and indoors to safety and avoid being detained.
“At the very least we can alert the community,” said one local activist.
Fliers placed around the neighborhood explain their use.
“When alarm goes off ICE is in the community,” read the fliers, posted in both English and Spanish. “Get off the streets, take shelter and lock down.”
Since the summer, immigration advocates have looked for ways to warn community members in L.A. when an immigration sweep was imminent.
But lately, especially since the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota in January, advocates have been looking for approaches that provide some distance.
Some activists head out to areas where ICE agents are spotted. Some record the interactions of immigration agents pulling over and stopping residents, while others yell, blow whistles and warn people in the vicinity to avoid the area.
Videos have shown ICE agents ordering activists to keep their distance and to stop recording, at times threatening to arrest or detain activists. But the recent fatal shootings have heightened the sense of danger.
The sirens, some activists told The Times, can also help protect activists while still alerting residents to ICE agents in the area.
“Folks are afraid, folks are scared,” said Nelson Grande, a Highland Park resident who is running for Los Angeles City Council District 1. “We need to come up with more creative ways to keep our community safe.”
About the size of a football, the fire engine-red sirens look like a clunky, portable speaker. But their loud wail, which can be activated via a mobile app, can be heard about half a mile away.
About 20 of the red sirens have been placed around the community so far, and community groups and local activists are still working to raise money to purchase more, and looking for more businesses and homes where they can install them.
The sirens cost about $70 each, and activists have taken to online fundraising to buy more. Several have been placed around the busy sections of York Boulevard and Figueroa Street, an activist said, inside businesses in the area as well as homes.
The Department of Homeland Security is not thrilled with the idea.
“This is quite literally insane,” a department spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The residents of Highland Park want to buy an air raid siren, the same device that was used in London when German planes flew over — to alert the community about ICE. Seems like a public nuisance.”
The spokesperson also responded with names and pictures of several men from Los Angeles who have been taken into custody by ICE and convicted of serious crimes.
“These are some of the criminals the residents of Highland Park are trying to protect and help evade arrest,” the spokesperson said.
Another city official, who asked to not be identified because city officials were not involved or consulted about the effort, said there are concerns about how the sirens might be used, how volunteers would identify and confirm the presence of ICE officers, and how residents would know the significance of the siren if they are put to use.
One activist said the group is aware of the concerns, as well as worries about noise complaints, but counter that with the changing tactics of ICE agents in their communities, residents are also looking for new, flexible, grassroots ways to alert people.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department declined to comment on the sirens. A spokesperson for Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the area, also declined to comment on the sirens, but said the city was not involved.
The bright red sirens might seem easy to spot, but activists said they’ve asked business owners and residents who have taken the sirens to keep them out of plain sight so they may not be immediately obvious if federal agents are in the area. Activists are also instructing people to keep them out of sight so ICE agents don’t see them and later target them.
“We’re seeing a diverse group of people that are reaching out to support,” Grande said. “There’s no specific person that’s being asked to do this.”
The sirens operate via the use of a mobile app that only certain people in the neighborhood are able to access and use.
The project has already gotten media attention, but activist groups are also keeping several details of the effort secret. Multiple activists involved in the effort spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity for fear of government retaliation. They declined to identify residents or businesses helping them.
Activist also won’t share what app is used to activate the sirens, pointing to previous efforts by the Trump administration to pressure Apple and Google to remove apps that alert people to ICE agents, such as ICEBlock.
Because the sirens are not sanctioned by the city, local organizers have been placing the devices on private property, including businesses and homes.
One coffee shop owner in Highland Park who asked to not be identified told The Times that they were aware of the sirens being placed near their location, but that they had not been approached about installing one in their shop.
Instead, the shop carries free whistles for customers to pick up and use in the event that ICE agents are spotted in the neighborhood. The whistles, which have been distributed in local businesses for several weeks now, provide another way for residents to alert one another.
Though the sirens have not yet been fully brought online, their effectiveness was illustrated during a recent test run.
On a recent weekend in February, a group of advocates demonstrated one of the sirens for a business owner who was considering installing one. The sound caused another person nearby to think ICE was actually in the area, so they activated their siren too.
“We’re just trying to see what other steps we can do to preemptively get everyone off the streets into safety,” said an activist at the demonstration who asked to not be named for fear of government retaliation.
For months, the activist has protested in downtown L.A. against ICE, particularly around the Metropolitan Detention Center where activists have faced off with federal agents, police and the National Guard. There, she found a loose-knit group of Highland Park activists who were raising money to purchase the sirens, and joined.
Activists have not communicated with police or city officials about the sirens, raising some concerns about how the devices are being used, how to inform residents about what the sounds from the sirens mean, and the possibility that the noise could become a nuisance.
But activists say the sirens are not meant just to assist undocumented residents who have lived and worked in the community for years, but also citizens, documented immigrants and others who have been targeted by federal agents in recent operations.
“It’s not just dangerous criminals that are being taken,” Grande said. “A lot of us know family members and friends that are being taken. We know how aggressive the ICE raids are.”
