The Highland Park Community Support Group is installing sirens to alert neighbors if Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is in the area, according to KM, an organizer assisting the effort who will remain anonymous due to safety concerns.
KM said 38 sirens have been installed on private properties, ranging from outside people’s homes to local businesses in Highland Park, mainly near the 110 Freeway exit.
“We saw ICE coming off the freeway really fast, and then picking people up and getting back on the freeway,” KM said. “The rapid response teams, it takes time for them to get down to where it’s happening and do the work, so we thought creating a louder system [would] be more effective in warning residents.”
When the installation is complete, the residents and business owners will get a notification that ICE is in the vicinity, and they will turn the sirens on, KM said.
KM said this effort is community-run, with funding coming from a GoFundMe page that raised $5,000 to buy the sirens and other necessary components like extension cords.
Because the sirens are only being placed on private properties, there is no need for a permit, KM said.
“There’s a noise ordinance, but we won’t have the sirens on that long, maybe a minute or two, so that shouldn’t be a problem,” KM said.
According to KM, the sirens should be fully up and running by the end of February. Participating businesses are not advertising if they have one of the sirens due to threats received from ICE supporters who said they would steal or wreck the sirens, KM said.
“We’re the first ones [doing this],” KM said. “One of our goals is to influence other communities to get their own sirens […]. Some communities reached out already, so we’ll be helping them.”
Darren Gold, president of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council (HHPNC), said he has lived in Highland Park for over six years and believes it is important for neighbors to look out for one another and share accurate information when there are legitimate concerns.
“We [HHPNC] respect that the siren effort is being organized by community members and activists,” Gold said via email. “As an official advisory body of the city, however, our role is governed by city rules and oversight. Any participation would require review and approval from the City Attorney, which limits our ability to formally engage in independently organized actions.”
According to Gold, the HHPNC has distributed whistles to help people feel prepared in the case of ICE action in the area.
“Any alert system has to be used responsibly,” Gold said via email. “I think in general, people like the idea of them.”
NBC Los Angeles reported that the Department of Homeland Security called the community effort in Highland Park to install sirens “quite literally insane.”
According to Gold, concerns regarding ICE are raised at nearly every HHPNC meeting.
“We’ve formally sent letters to the City Council requesting that towing fees be waived for vehicles left behind when residents are detained,” Gold said via email. “Within our role as an official City advisory body, we are doing everything we can to support residents who are being impacted by these raids.”
KM said the community effort is interested in potentially reactivating the air raid sirens from the Cold War era that are still installed around Northeast LA. For a project of this size, KM said the group is seeking mayor Karen Bass’s support.
In a statement to The Occidental, mayor Karen Bass’s office said that she recently signed Directive 17, which restricts federal immigration officers from using or remaining at city-owned facilities and aims to limit ICE presence on city property, including in communities such as Highland Park.
“Mayor Bass has expressed concern about the climate of fear affecting residents, noting that many ethnic minorities are becoming less visible in daily life and that the change in community atmosphere feels significant and unsettling,” the statement said.
KM said that there is so much city officials could be doing to help address the immigration enforcement issues around the city.
“It’s just terrible what’s happening right now,” KM said. “They’re not even asking for ID. They’re just picking up people because they’re brown or Black […] Thinking outside the box of different ways to help the community from these ICE raids is very important.”
Contact Ava LaLonde at lalonde@oxy.edu
