GUILDERLAND — When Nancy Cavillones held the first meeting of Guilderland Indivisible last summer in the Helderberg Room of the Guilderland Public Library, five people showed up.
On Monday, the same room was crowded with over 50 people, and more were in line at the door, waiting to come in.
They sat around tables, assembling kits for whistleblowers.
The practice started in September in Chicago in September when the Trump administration started a deportation crackdown. Short blasts signal that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are in the area. Long blasts on the whistle mean that ICE is detaining someone.
Whistleblowing has spread to other cities, including Minneapolis where Renee Nicole Macklin Good was shot dead in her car by an ICE agent on Jan. 7. Her wife, Becca Good, who was with her when she died, said later, “We had whistles. They had guns.”
“I’m very concerned with what is going on in our country and I wanted to do what I can to help,” said Donna Vincent as she assembled a whistle kit on Monday evening.
Each kit consists of a bright orange whistle on a lanyard; a booklet from the not-for-profit Migra Whistle, which produced them; and yellow a “Know Your Rights” card produced by nokings.org with instructions about rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and with advice like a warrant needs to be signed by a judge before an agent can enter a home.
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