To resist the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and alert communities about incoming operations, neighborhoods across Los Angeles and Chicago have created a campaign called “Whistlemania.”
Whistlemania is a community-organized decentralized movement in which volunteers mass create zines and distribute whistle packs into different Long Beach locations to bring attention to ICE raids. The zines inform people on how to report an ICE raid and support someone being arrested, while the whistles are meant to alert communities and rapid responders.
Long Beach residents and grassroots organizers recently adopted this movement to bring awareness, solidarity and a culture of care.
Members of Long Beach Indivisible help facilitate the Make Whistle Packs at The Wicked Wolf on Jan. 20, 2026 where they show volunteers how to cut, fold and package whistle packs. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)
Each table continues stacking whistle packs to zip up during the Whistlemania’s Make Whistle Packs event as volunteers help cut, fold and package whistle packs while building connections with one another on Jan. 20, 2026. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)
Dawn Nadeau, a Long Beach grassroots organizer, helped create a local Whistlemania Linktree a month ago and brought national grassroots organization Long Beach Indivisible on board.
The idea first sprouted when she spoke with a friend at Long Beach Health Mutual about possibly hosting a zine folding party and discussed how to increase outreach with Lakewood Indivisible. A few weeks later, a gardener was tackled and arrested by ICE in Polly Pies on November 20, prompting Nadeau to spring into action.
Though Nadeau was aware of the term “whistlemania,” she didn’t know how organized and widespread the Chicago campaign had become until she started looking up fonts to create a table sign for Long Beach Indivisible.
“It was kind of an epiphany … there were all of these organizations that were trying to do something to help their neighbors and the people that are vulnerable but they weren’t connected, everyone was operating independently and doing different things.”
– Dawn Nadeau, founder of Long Beach Whistlemania
Long Beach community members participated in the Whistlemania Make Whistle Packs event on Jan. 20, 2026 as volunteers folded, cut and packaged the whistle zines at The Wicked Wolf. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)
Long Beach’s Whistlemania is a one-stop resource hub with raid response contacts, DIY whistle pack supply links, zine folding instructions and free prints, mutual aid contacts and upcoming events all on their Linktree.
“It gives people agency and it helps people keep out of despair,” Nadeau said.
The iconic whistle art that Long Beach’s Whistlemania uses was created by the Pilsen Arts & Community House, which originated from the Chicago Whistlemania campaign. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicagoans have distributed at least 150,000 whistles and 10,000 know-your-rights cards to dozens of cities around the country.
Since many parts of Long Beach are not as densely populated as Chicago, Nadeau said they hope to create more of an alerting “network” and encourage organizations to work together. This differs from Chicago’s approach where tens of people are likely to swarm an area if they hear the whistles.
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61 Long Beach residents attended Whistlemania’s Make Whistle Packs event on Jan. 20, 2026 at The Wicked Wolf. Each table worked together to create small whistle packs to pass out to the community. They ended the night with 2,100 whistle packs created after the event was over. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)
If people do see ICE agents patrolling or detaining individuals, they are encouraged to call or text the rapid response number listed on the Linktree, which is tied to advocacy group Unión del Barrio. The document with the phone number also contains simple instructions of what type of information to gather, how to support someone being detained, how to use the whistle to efficiently alert people and additional helpful information.
According to Nadeau, Unión del Barrio will blast the information out via text, alerting people that ICE is in that area. If available, rapid responders will then arrive onsite to advise the detainee or find the family of the taken citizen to offer aid.
Whistlemania fulfills what Nadeau calls citizenry, which is something everyone can do to help their community. Unlike patrolling or responding to ICE raids in-person, the barrier of entry to fold zines and pass out whistles is much lower, she said.
Long Beach citizens attend Whistlemania’s Make Whistle Packs event on Jan. 20, 2026 to help create zines to pass around Long Beach. This was Whistlemania’s first public event, as they’ll be having their official kick-off on Jan. 24, 2026 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Bixby Park. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)
During the Whistlemania Make Whistle Packs event on Jan. 20, 2026 Long Beach residents volunteer their time to create whistle packs at The Wicked Wolf. Each member was tasked to do one specific job, whether it was folding the zines, unhooking the whistles or packing the whistle packs. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)
“Working on something where you are actually physically making something, is really powerful,” said Ashley Craig, Whistlemania advocate and Long Beach Indivisible founding member. “It creates an outlet to make a contribution towards the pushback and the repudiation of ICE is doing and also support[s] community members and also [helps people] come together [as a] community.”
According to L.A.TACO, over 470 people were taken by ICE in Southern California in the month of December alone. On Tuesday morning, three men were detained by ICE in an east Long Beach neighborhood while they were working as gardeners, even though one of the men explained he is a naturalized citizen and showed proof of identification to the agents.
“I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon,” Nadeau said. “You see the images from Minnesota, it’s like a warzone for them.”
The campaign’s goal is to have 16,000 whistles, one for roughly 3.5% of the city’s population, on the streets of Long Beach in the next three months.
Long Beach’s Whistlemania held its first public event on Jan. 20 at Wicked Wolf where residents cut and folded zines, untangled whistles and packaged important information into one small resealable bag.
Long Beach residents attend Whistlemania’s Make Whistle Packs event on Jan. 20, 2026 at The Wicked Wolf, where they help create and package whistle packs to send out across Long Beach. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)
Of the 85 people who signed up, 61 attended the event, with 2,100 whistle packs created within two hours. According to Nadeau, around 3,200 whistle packs are either ready to be distributed or have already been dispersed in Long Beach.
“It’s an awful situation, but when you get all the people in the room together, folding and working on something, people feel like they’re doing something,” she said.
Businesses that were given whistle packs recently include Dutch’s Brewhouse, Fingerprints, For Eyes, Page Against the Machine, Salon Medusa, Stateside Crafts and Wood Coffee Co.
Residents may be able to pick up whistle packs at these locations if they are still available. In the coming days, Whistlemania will publish a business map on their Linktree with all the locations where residents can pick up whistle packs.
“We’re article one. Not them. They’re supposed to be working for us and serve and even though ICE isn’t local law enforcement … we still look at them serving and protecting us,” Nadeau said. “The only way to take that power back is for us to get together and understand that we are the articles.”
Whistlemania will have its official kick-off event Saturday, Jan. 24 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Bixby Park, where attendees will fold zines and build whistle packs. This will be the first of six folding eventsheld across different Long Beach businesses through February.
Samuel ChackoPhotojournalist
Samuel Chacko is an award-winning photojournalist from Long Beach, California. Samuel currently works as a freelance journalist for multiple publications and he is a class of 2025 Cal State Long Beach graduate. Samuel loves watching sports (the Ravens and the Yankees) and taking photos.
Check out more of Samuel’s work here: https://samuelchacko.com/
