Staff shaken after ICE pursuit leads agents into Ovenbird Bakery in Highlandtown

Federal immigration officers chased a man they were attempting to detain in Highlandtown into Ovenbird Bakery on Friday morning, leaving staff shaken from the encounter.

The bakery’s owner, Keiller Kyle, said a man came into the East Baltimore store and asked staff members at the front counter if they spoke Spanish before running into the back area. It wasn’t clear to the staff where he went from there, Kyle said, but four Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents followed him into the business and began questioning staff and customers.

Kyle said the agents were “jacked up” from the pursuit, and employees witnessed one agent place his hand on his gun and loosen it in his holster while questioning them. The agents went behind the front counter but did not force their way through doors that led to the back or kitchen areas where staff said they could not enter, the owner said.

The encounter lasted about five minutes before agents left the store. No one inside Ovenbird Bakery was targeted by the officers, and neither was the business itself, Kyle said.

“It was a relatively fast interaction for us, thankfully,” he said but added that he could not understand why there was an escalation inside the store.

“They felt they were inside some sort of escalating circumstance where guns were needed inside a bakery,” Kyle said. “This place should be a calm space for us to do our work.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not clear if ICE ever detained the person it was pursuing.

Mark Parker, the City Council member who represents Highlandtown, was at the bakery shortly after to help staff, Kyle said.

Catalina Rodriguez-Lima, director of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, said she was made aware of the incident Friday through social media and contacted the owner because people were probably “afraid and concerned.” She said she provided Kyle resources related to Safe City Baltimore, an immigration legal defense fund.

The presence of ICE is an ongoing concern, Rodriguez-Lima said, “not just for us but everyone in the community.”

“I think that’s part of the reason why we’re working as hard as we can to share information on what are people’s rights, information about legal services, so that we can empower people with the information and resources to protect themselves,” she said.

Although Rodriguez-Lima could not speak to an increase in immigration enforcement in the city, she said she has not noticed a significant increase in reports from residents.

“But then again, you know, we can’t be in every corner,” she said.

Kyle said he has been talking extensively with his staff since Friday and is accepting help from the mayor’s office to provide his employees with information regarding their rights when encountering federal agents.

He recognizes that increased immigration enforcement is a recurring issue for the Highlandtown neighborhood and Latin American community there. He is figuring out the best ways to help protect his staff.

“From a business standpoint, it’s very disruptive across the board. It’s very disruptive for our communities. It’s very disruptive for my staff specifically to even have to be thinking about this type of action in our city,” he said.