When people attend Sunday services at the Reba Place and Living Water churches in suburban Chicago, they always remember to bring their Bibles — and their whistles. The Bibles are so they can follow along with sermons. The whistles are so they can blow them to warn their neighbors if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are in the area. “They’re with us all the time,” Reba Place Church member Dan Coyne said on Nov. 11 of the whistles that he and his wife, Emily, carry with them. “I keep mine in my pocket.” The two churches, which are part of Mennonite Church USA, grew out of Reba Place Fellowship. They are located in areas targeted by ICE to round up and deport undocumented people. The operation, called Midway Blitz, has resulted in the detentions of over 1,800 people since June. “The whistles are a nonviolent way to resist,” said Dan, a social worker at a school in Evanston. People blow three short blasts as a warning that ICE agents are in the area. Three long blasts mean people see agents in the process of trying to detain someone. The goal is to draw attention to what is happening and perhaps disrupt the operation. Dan used his whistle at school once, when ICE agents were nearby, as a warning to students. “We brought them into the building and locked the doors,” he said. “We pass them out to whoever wants them, as many as we can,” said Emily, who works as a nurse at a local clinic. Church members hand out cards in English and Spanish for undocumented people that list their rights and who to call if they are detained. The churches have signs on the doors to tell ICE and border patrol agents they are not allowed inside unless they have a warrant. “We want people to feel safe inside our churches,” Dan said. Altogether, “it’s very frightening,” Emily said. Helicopters regularly buzz low overhead, adding to people’s fear and insecurity. “Many people are afraid to leave their homes for medical appointments or to buy groceries,” she said. Church members help their undocumented neighbors by going to the grocery store for them or to home renovation stores to buy materials for contractors who are working at area homes. “ICE likes to pick up people at Home Depot,” Dan said. Through his work, Dan sees the anxiety of students who worry their parents might disappear when they are at school. To prevent that from happening when parents drop off or pick up their children each school day, he and others patrol outside the school to protect them. The couple want to be clear that they don’t hate ICE agents. “We pray for everyone, including the agents,” Dan said. “Jesus said to pray for enemies. We take that seriously.” While they wish this had never happened in their community or country, one bit of silver lining is how it has brought everyone in the area together. It has also helped people see the churches as caring for them. “They see us as trusted neighbors,” Dan said. Their actions let Latino members of the two churches know they aren’t alone. In addition to whistles, cards and signs, Reba Place Church has helped by providing a portable stage for use at rallies and other outdoor events like the No Kings rally in mid-October that attracted 5,000 people in Evanston. “It’s another way we can be useful,” said Dan, who built the stage. The couple, who have two grown children, acknowledged their actions could put them in some danger. But they aren’t afraid. “It’s not likely they are going to detain two older white people,” Dan said. At the same time, the Coynes know what they are doing is not without risk; a Chicago pastor was shot in October with pepper balls while praying outside an ICE facility. “We could get hurt, but that might be the cost of following Christ,” said Dan. “We won’t stop caring for our neighbors.” Added Emily: “We can’t be silent. This is our neighborhood, and these are our neighbors. We can’t sit still.” For Ronn Frantz, a community leader at Reba Place Fellowship, resisting efforts by ICE agents to detain undocumented people in the Chicago area is about following Jesus’ instructions to love neighbors. By blowing whistles and going to rallies, “we are a witness that we care for them,” he said. Members of Living Water church, where he attends, keep an eye out on Sunday mornings in case ICE agents show up. “We are always ready if something happens,” he said. Although church leadership has not issued any public statements, they support members who are engaged in supporting neighbors who are at risk of being detained. “We encourage them to be a witness to their faith in Jesus, to not close their eyes to what is going on with our brothers and sisters,” he said. In this way, members of the two churches are showing the love of God “by being with them, watching out for them and helping to bear their burdens,” Frantz said, adding that by doing so they are “fulfilling the law of Christ.”

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