Attorneys seek release of couple detained by ICE at Baltimore school

Attorneys are seeking the release of a couple whose arrests by immigration authorities outside a Southeast Baltimore school last week disturbed parents and drew the ire of local officials.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration said both the man, Jesus Acevedo Sanchez, and another person who was inside the same car are facing federal charges for allegedly evading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Department of Homeland Security posted on the social media platform X that Acevedo Sanchez, 39, “used his vehicle to evade law enforcement, dragging an ICE officer in the process,” while the other person, whom they did not name, “punched officers.” No such charges were available in federal court records as of Monday afternoon.

Attorneys from Baltimore-based Eldridge Crandell LLC wrote in habeas corpus petitions that Acevedo Sanchez and his wife, 37-year-old Adriana Gavilan Sanchez, were “violently detained” Thursday outside Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School, where families were dropping off children and gathering for a prekindergarten graduation event. The couple and their two children “had just finished breakfast together and were on their way to drop the children off at school when their vehicle was hit in the rear and the side by two ICE vehicles,” Acevedo Sanchez’s petition says.

The petitions allege that immigration authorities violated the pair’s Fifth Amendment rights to due process, as well as the Immigration and Nationality Act’s detention provisions. Filed Friday, they say both parents’ last known places of detention was the hold room at ICE’s Baltimore field office.

In a show-cause order issued later Friday in Acevedo Sanchez’s case, U.S. District Judge Julie R. Rubin gave Trump administration officials until Thursday to explain why she shouldn’t enjoin them from detaining Acevedo Sanchez and order them to provide him with a bond hearing.

Eldridge Crandell immigration attorney Rachael E. Savage wrote that Acevedo Sanchez, a native of Mexico, had entered the U.S. in 2001 without being inspected, admitted or apprehended by immigration authorities; his wife entered “several” years ago. Savage wrote that both have remained in the U.S. since, have “no known criminal history anywhere in the world” and have not had any prior proceedings in immigration court.

Spokespeople for ICE’s Baltimore field office and the DHS did not return requests for comment Monday. They said on social media that Acevedo Sanchez had “violently resisted arrest and fled into the vicinity of the school.” They said Friday that he “now faces federal charges for resisting and impeding federal officers, and destruction of government property,” and another person in his car was charged “for assaulting a federal officer.”

Videos of the arrest during the school’s drop-off quickly made the rounds on social media, with recordings showing agents wrestling with a man on the ground while a woman looks out from a car window. The arrest seemed to be the first in Baltimore on school grounds since Donald Trump assumed the presidency for a second term.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement that the footage was “deeply disturbing,” joining local officials who said that schools are sensitive locations where immigration enforcement typically doesn’t occur.

Meanwhile, ICE said its leadership “coordinated with school officials and the Governor’s Office to ensure the situation was resolved safely and with minimal disruption to the community.” The agency said it “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.”

This story has been updated.