This hip L.A. neighborhood is installing emergency sirens to warn of ICE raids

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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.Actor Frank Clem, and others, are blowing the whistle on Trump’s brutal ICE raids.The sirens, some activists told The Times, can also help protect activists while still alerting residents to ICE agents in ...