ICE vehicles hit Baltimore father’s car as he took his children to school, attorney says

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement defended its Thursday detention of a father and mother on school property in Baltimore, saying the man resisted arrest and dragged an ICE officer with his car.

Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement posted on X early Friday morning that Jesus Acevedo Sanchez “refused lawful commands, violently resisted arrest, and used his vehicle to evade law enforcement, dragging an ICE officer in the process.”

The statement says Acevedo Sanchez then drove to Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School’s temporary campus in East Baltimore, where he was detained.

Video of the detention reviewed by The Banner shows ICE agents holding Acevedo Sanchez down on the ground in a bus loop not far from steps leading to the front door of the school building.

Two of his children were in the car with their mother. In the video, a distraught child screams out of a backseat window at law enforcement agents, saying that her father didn’t do anything. Children walk by on their way into school at about 7:50 a.m.

In a petition filed on Friday challenging his detention, Acevedo Sanchez’s attorney, Rachael Savage, wrote that her client was born Jan. 13, 1987, and is a native of Mexico. She said he entered the United States in 2001.

“Mr. Acevedo has remained in the United States since his last entry, residing in Maryland for more than twenty-five years,” Savage wrote. “He has no known criminal history anywhere in the world.”

In a Friday court order, a U.S. District judge indicated that Acevedo Sanchez had entered the U.S. without legal permission and is now in deportation proceedings.

Early Thursday morning, Savage said, her client and his wife were on the way to drop their two children off at school “when their vehicle was hit in the rear and side by two ICE vehicles.”

“He and his wife were violently detained outside Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School in front of their children,” Savage said. “Mr. Acevedo has been in immigration detention since his apprehension.”

Savage declined to comment on Friday.

Thursday’s incident was apparently the first time ICE agents detained individuals on school property in Baltimore since President Donald Trump returned to office last year and initiated a sweeping immigration crackdown.

The ICE statement says Acevedo Sanchez previously attempted to evade law enforcement. “During a previous ICE encounter in April, he caused a collision with an ICE vehicle before fleeing the scene,” the statement reads.

ICE said Acevedo Sanchez has been charged with resisting and impeding federal law enforcement officers and destroying government property.

The statement says the mother, who was in the car with Acevedo Sanchez, faces federal charges of assaulting a federal officer.

Bis said ICE leadership coordinated with school officials and the governor’s office “to ensure the situation was resolved safely and with minimal disruption to the community.”

ICE officials apologized to the governor’s office and school officials “for operating on school property and acknowledged they should not have been there,” according to a source familiar with ICE communications with local officials who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Baltimore City Public Schools spokesperson Sherry Christian denied that school officials coordinated with ICE. She questioned the agency’s characterization of Thursday’s incident “based on the video we have reviewed and firsthand accounts from staff and families.”

“ICE has acknowledged that schools should remain places focused on learning and that enforcement actions should not occur on school campuses,” Christian said in an emailed statement. “We welcome that commitment and expect future actions to reflect it consistently.”

A spokesperson for the governor’s office also said the office did not coordinate with ICE.

The incident drew renewed calls from local and state leaders to leave schools out of immigration enforcement.

In a joint statement Friday, members of the Baltimore City Council condemned Thursday’s action and “all illegal ICE enforcement actions.”

“Our public schools and City facilities cannot be used for immigration enforcement, and immigration enforcement on campus or in the vicinity of our schools has direct consequences for the safety of our students and for their ability to learn,” the statement says. “We are coordinating with Baltimore City Public Schools and community partners to pursue every avenue available to us.”

On Thursday, City Solicitor Ebony Thompson said legislation recently passed by the council prohibits city agencies from coordinating with federal immigration officials but does not apply “to an unauthorized and uninvited incursion onto City property, which this appears to have been.”

Gov. Wes Moore, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and several of Maryland’s elected leaders at the state and congressional levels also condemned ICE’s actions, saying agents traumatized children.

In a Thursday letter addressed to ICE Baltimore Field Office Director Matthew Elliston, Maryland Speaker of the House Joseline Peña-Melnyk said the incident was “inconsistent” with previous assurances ICE made to educators and asked officials to explain themselves within two weeks.

In the letter, she asked whether ICE officials knew they were on a school campus and that families were arriving, whether ICE agents had been surveilling the detained parents beforehand and what steps the agency will take to ensure future enforcement actions don’t happen on school grounds. She also asked if this has happened before .

The incident drew a rebuke from leaders of the American Federation of Teachers, a national union for educators, who said they had filed an emergency motion to stop ICE from operating in and around schools.

Savage, the lawyer, said Acevedo Sanchez’s last known place of detention was ICE’s Baltimore hold room inside the George H. Fallon Federal Office Building.

In an order late Friday, U.S. District Judge Julie Rubin instructed the federal government to justify by noon on June 18 why she should not grant Acevedo Sanchez a bond hearing like in similar cases.

ICE did not immediately answer questions from The Banner about Thursday’s incident.

The agency’s statement does not say where Acevedo Sanchez and his wife were taken after their arrests. ICE said a family member has custody of their children.

Banner reporter Pamela Wood contributed to this story.

This article has been updated.

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