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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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Videos showing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrest a mother and father on the campus of a Baltimore school has sparked outrage from school, city and state leaders.
The federal agents' actions—shown in the videos below—took place at Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School on Thursday morning as children were being dropped off, Principle Marc Martin said.
Martin told parents in a letter that members of the school community "were significantly impacted" by disruption,” the district was “deeply disappointed,” and families “deserve to interact with their schools free of fear and worry of arrest.”
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State Senator Bill Ferguson, a Democrat, called the ICE action “truly unconscionable" and said it happened during pre-K graduation ceremony.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified one of the people arrested as Jesus Acevedo-Sanchez and said the incident began off school grounds.
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Acevedo-Sanchez "refused lawful commands, violently resisted arrest, and used his vehicle to evade law enforcement, dragging an ICE officer in the process,” DHS said in a statement on X. “He later fled into the vicinity of a local elementary school before officers safely took him into custody.”
DHS also alleged that it was not Acevedo-Sanchez's first time evading law enforcement, saying that he caused a collision with an ICE vehicle in April.
Acevedo faces federal charges for resisting and impeding federal officers and destruction of government property, DHS said. The agency said that the second person “in the car during the operation punched officers and is now facing charges for assaulting a federal officer.”
DHS added: "A second illegal alien in the car during the operation punched officers and is now facing federal charges for assaulting a federal officer."
The parents were given the opportunity to contact a relative, and their children are now in the custody of their aunt, DHS added.
Can ICE Make Arrests at Schools?
Many families are grappling with the risks of sending children to school.
City and state leaders condemned the federal agents' actions, saying they had been assured that immigration enforcement would not take place at schools.
The Trump administration in January last year threw out longstanding guidance that schools and other “sensitive places” were considered off-limits for ICE agents.
But Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a Democrat, signed a law in April that seeks to expand protections for and limit federal immigration enforcement actions in “sensitive locations” including public schools.
DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis told Newsweek that ICE “does not target schools, but we will not allow criminals to hide in our nation’s schools and put the safety of children at risk.”
Bis said that ICE leadership had “coordinated with school officials and the Governor’s Office to ensure the situation was resolved safely and with minimal disruption to the community.”
President Donald Trump has made immigration enforcement and deportations a priority. He signed a bill on Wednesday that gives his immigration agenda a $70 billion boost for the rest of his term.
Videos Show ICE Action Outside School
Several videos posted on social media and by news outlets show the arrests.
The clips show two ICE agents wrestling a man on the ground near a vehicle, while a woman can be heard screaming: “You cannot do this to him.” Another person can be heard shouting: “This is school property.”
In the videos, a woman is seen sitting in the driver’s seat of the vehicle and a child can be seen in the back seat.
“My dad didn’t do anything,” the girl says during the incident, The Baltimore Banner reported.
Video shared on Facebook shows the woman being forced out of the vehicle and restrained by an agent, seconds after a group of children are seen walking by in the vicinity.
Bus driver Jude Castellanos, who captured some video of the incident, told local news station WBBF that she had been preparing to drop off ten children at the school when the incident occurred.
Castallanos said at least one student was afraid that agents would detain her as well.
“This girl told me, 'they’re going to take me they’re going to take me,' I’m like 'hey, chill, calm down they’re not going to take you,'” she said.
School Seeks 'Clear Assurances' from ICE
In a letter to the school community, principal Marc Martin said the arrests occurred on the school’s campus as children were being dropped off on Thursday morning.
“While some members of our school community were significantly impacted, students and staff who were not involved remain safe, and we continued with our scheduled activities, despite the disruption,” Martin said in the letter.
Martin added that the district is “deeply disappointed” and that families “deserve to interact with their schools free of fear and worry of arrest.”
He said the district is in contact with local ICE officials, and elected officials are engaging with state ICE leadership seeking “clear assurances that enforcement activity of this nature will not occur on our school campuses again.”
He added: “We will continue to advocate forcefully for the safety, dignity, and well-being of every student and family in our care.”
Backlash
In a video posted on X, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson said that the family had pulled into the school’s parking lot with ICE agents in pursuit.
“Folks will see this unbelievable video where parents are ripped out of their cars, face bloodied, children in the backseat screaming in the middle of the pre-K ceremonies at a school in East Baltimore,” he said.
He added that ICE officials had made assurances that there would not be any more enforcement actions at schools following concerns about federal immigration activity at other schools in recent weeks “Not even two weeks later, and total insanity is breaking out in front of schools,” he said.
Alongside the video, he wrote: "Nothing else matters if families don't feel safe. We will not back down and will continue fighting this lawless administration, especially when that lawlessness threatens kids and families at schools.”
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott also condemned the arrests, adding that his team has reached out to the family and school district to offer assistance.
"I will reiterate once again that this type of enforcement is not welcome in Baltimore," Scott said in a statement posted on X.
"The presence of ICE has not made our city any safer, and in fact has led to greater fear and anxiety, especially for our immigrant neighbors. Both public safety and order are jeopardized by the violent and duhmanizing tactics that have become the norm for federal immigration agents here in Baltimore and across the county.”
Governor West Moore called the incident “deeply disturbing” and said his administration is in contact with ICE leadership to determine why ICE agents were on school grounds during drop-off and what actions will be taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
"Schools are places where children should feel safe, where parents should be able to drop off their kids without fear, and where educators should be able to focus on teaching, not where federal agents carry out immigration enforcement actions in front of children,” Moore said in a statement.
He added: “Let me be clear: Maryland will work with federal law enforcement when it makes our communities safer. But actions that terrorize children, separate families in front of a school, and undermine trust in public institutions do not make us safer.”
Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, wrote on X: “Our schools should be safe spaces for our children. Today's action by Trump's ICE on the campus of John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore traumatized our kids. This is not making our communities safer.”
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