These Baltimore parents’ lives revolved around their kids. ICE detained them at school drop-off.

A child’s screams, a damaged car, a bleeding man wrestled to the ground.

The chaotic way two Baltimore parents were detained outside their daughter’s school stands in stark contrast to what their neighbors describe as their normally quiet lives.

The couple, 39-year-old Jesus Acevedo Sanchez and 37-year-old Adriana Gavilan Sanchez, are the first people reported to be detained at a Maryland public school by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since agents got the green light from the Trump administration to enter formerly protected spaces last year.

Their detention again thrusts an incident with ICE in Maryland into the national spotlight and raises questions about the account given by federal authorities. Interviews with neighbors, video footage and court documents give a fuller picture of the violent encounter and frightened family, with federal officials describing Acevedo Sanchez as the aggressor. Within the family’s community, neighbors and others described the Sanchezes as dedicated parents working to give their kids good, stable lives.

ICE agents detained the parents last week, feet from Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School in East Baltimore, despite previous promises to leave schools alone. The agency defended its actions, accusing Acevedo Sanchez of dragging an officer with his car before driving to the school, an account that elected officials, the school system and the couple’s lawyer have questioned.

The parents are undocumented immigrants who have never formally interacted with immigration officials and have lived in the U.S. for decades, according to court documents. They’re raising two daughters, who are U.S. citizens, and were on the way to drop them off at school when a clash with federal agents ended in their detention and separation from their family.

It may be permanent. The government wants to deport Gavilan Sanchez.

Dedicated parents

Only glimpses of the couple’s lives have emerged. Most who have spoken to them declined to provide details to protect their privacy.

According to court records, Acevedo Sanchez entered the country in 2001. His partner came to the country around 2007, and the two have been together for more than 15 years, according to documents filed Thursday. It’s unclear how either entered the country. Neighbors said Gavilan Sanchez came to the U.S. from San Diego el Organal, a rural village in Puebla, Mexico, that has few employment opportunities.

Neighbors were shocked and disheartened to hear about the incident. Several described Gavilan Sanchez as a quiet but friendly presence. She occasionally chatted with neighbors but was always focused on her girls.

Kelly Cadwallader, who has taught both of the couple’s daughters at Wolfe Street Academy, said the pair are among the most involved parents she’s ever met — even with a language barrier.

They’re always the first to volunteer to help with school events, especially field trips, where she said the “endearing” Acevedo Sanchez is particularly popular and does much of the heavy lifting.

Cadwallader described Gavilan Sanchez as a warm and thoughtful person who always brought her birthday and Christmas cards, even during the years Cadwallader wasn’t teaching her children. For school birthday parties, the pair brought in personal quesadillas and homemade cupcakes.

“They’re just the family that is willing to step in and would really do anything to help anyone or any child,” Cadwallader said.

The government’s defense

Video of the ICE encounter circulated quickly the morning of June 11.

What started as breakfast at a nearby doughnut shop turned into a pursuit through their quiet neighborhood. It ended with agents forcibly removing Acevedo Sanchez and his wife from the car as their children cried and screamed in the backseat in view of other kids and families arriving for class.

Footage from home security systems showed the family slowly driving down O’Donnell Street in a silver Ford Explorer before making the turn onto Fait Avenue, a black sedan with flashing red and blue lights closely tailing them.

A neighbor said she heard sirens on the street, followed by screams a couple of minutes later. When she looked out the window, she said, she saw ICE agents wrangling Acevedo Sanchez on the ground.

ICE said Acevedo Sanchez has been charged with resisting and impeding federal law enforcement officers and destroying government property. Gavilan Sanchez faces federal charges of assaulting a federal officer, the agency said.

Neither has had an initial appearance in federal court, and any court records documenting those charges are not yet publicly available.

Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said early the day after the incident that Acevedo Sanchez “refused lawful commands, violently resisted arrest, and used his vehicle to evade law enforcement, dragging an ICE officer in the process.”

“This was not Acevedo’s first attempt to evade law enforcement,” Bis said in a post on X. “During a previous ICE encounter in April, he caused a collision with an ICE vehicle before fleeing the scene.”

DHS responded to multiple requests for details concerning the alleged April incident and the accusation that Acevedo Sanchez dragged an officer with a similar statement to the one posted on X.

A sudden separation

The couple’s lawyers have denied assertions by DHS with habeas corpus petitions that say neither Acevedo Sanchez nor Gavilan Sanchez has a criminal history or had prior proceedings in immigration court. The petitions also countered federal officials’ version of events and said the couple were on their way to drop off their children at school “when their vehicle was hit in the rear and side by two ICE vehicles.”

According to an updated version of the petition filed Thursday, neither parent was served with a warrant or provided a basis for the stop and arrest. ICE agents smashed the couple’s car window and left Acevedo Sanchez bleeding, the document says.

Eldridge Crandell Maryland Law Firm, which is representing the couple, did not respond to requests for comment.

Tactics ICE agents use to detain immigrants have become more aggressive since President Donald Trump took office and pushed the agency to ramp up deportations. Those tactics have often resulted in violent encounters in which agents have used their cars to stop other vehicles, broken car windows, dragged people out of their seats and pepper-sprayed bystanders and protesters.

Baltimore City Councilman Mark Parker, who represents the neighborhood where the incident occurred, said he visited both parents while they were detained in Baltimore.

Parker declined to share details about those conversations but pointed out that neither of the parents had an alien number before being detained, indicating they had no previous formal interaction with ICE or Border Patrol.

Parker questioned the federal government’s assertions about an earlier incident involving Acevedo Sanchez.

“No one, except for ICE, has said anything about that thing in April, so I have no reason to believe it’s true,” he said.

Shortly after he was picked up, Acevedo Sanchez was transferred to the Farmville Detention Center in Virginia. Gavilan Sanchez is at the Caroline Detention Facility, also in Virginia, according to an ICE database that tracks detainees’ movements.

Though the pair are separated from their daughters, Cadwallader said through tears that, if she could speak to the girls, she could tell them one thing.

“Their parents are only thinking of them right now.”

Baltimore Banner reporters Liz Bowie and Dylan Segelbaum contributed to this article.