LA neighborhood fitted with anti-ICE sirens to warn residents

Fliers placed around the neighborhood spell out the activists goal in blunt terms.

“When alarm goes off ICE is in the community,” the notices read in English and Spanish, according to The Times. “Get off the streets, take shelter and lock down.”

The project has taken root in Highland Park, a rapidly gentrifying community in northeast Los Angeles that’s now packed with artisanal coffee shops, vintage boutiques and celebrity homeowners.

Among the celebrities tied to the area is uber-famous anti-ICE pop star Eilish, who until recently still lived with her parents in the neighborhood where she grew up.

The “Bad Guy” singer sparked intense backlash last month for using her Grammys acceptance speech to rail against ICE with the claim that “no one is illegal on stolen land.” Following her remarks a Native American tribe urged the singer to return a separate home nearby which the Natives say lays upon their “ancestral land.”

Eilish, who Forbes estimated had a net worth of $53 million in 2020, purchased the $2.3 million horse ranch in Glendale when she was just 17 years old, according to Realtor.com.

Another high-profile Highland Park booster is actress Kristen Stewart, who recently purchased the historic Highland Theatre — a nearly century-old movie palace — with plans to restore it.

Stewart has also been outspoken about immigrant enforcement. In a recent interview with Architectural Digest, the leading lady lamented what she described as the dismantling of immigrant culture in Los Angeles.

“Immigrants… I, I can’t stand the idea that the dismantling of the culture that did have a hand in making me who I am,” Stewart said, adding that “Los Angeles doesn’t exist without all of us.”

“This is, like, not who we are,” she added. “So, like, where I’m from, I don’t identify with that right now. And so, like, I – I definitely am dying every day thinking, ‘So do we make movies about this? Do we throw all of our money at it? Do we stop buying burgers in the daytime? What do we do about this?’ Like, I can’t fathom that it’s happening until it doesn’t happen. It’s like Los Angeles doesn’t exist without all of us.”

Critics quickly blasted the virtue-signaling Hollywood star’s remarks as “word salad.”

The siren network is the latest grassroots tactic from activists trying to counter stepped-up immigration raids under President Trump.

For weeks, activists has been installing the devices around Highland Park with the goal of warning residents when ICE agents are spotted nearby, the Times reported.

Some activists had previously warned neighbors by shouting, blowing whistles or filming immigration agents during enforcement operations. But confrontations with federal agents — including threats of arrest for activists recording operations — have pushed organizers to look for alternatives that allow them to keep their distance, according to the Times’ report.

Supporters say the sirens are meant to give residents time to avoid potential detentions.

“At the very least we can alert the community,” one local activist told the Times.

But federal officials blasted the idea.

“This is quite literally insane,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement to the Times.

“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 department also circulated the names and photos of several men arrested in Los Angeles immigration operations who had prior criminal convictions.

“These are some of the criminals the residents of Highland Park are trying to protect and help evade arrest,” the spokesperson said, according to the Times.

Local officials have also raised questions about the effort.

One city official told the Times there were concerns about how volunteers would confirm ICE activity, how residents would know what the siren means — and whether the alarms could become a noise nuisance.

Activists acknowledged the concerns but argued the system reflects growing fear in immigrant communities facing increased enforcement operations.

“Folks are afraid, folks are scared,” Highland Park resident and City Council candidate Nelson Grande told The Times. “We need to come up with more creative ways to keep our community safe.”

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