After U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were spotted next to New Hampshire Estates Elementary School, panic spread.

It was close to drop-off time Monday morning, and word got around the school — which is 71% Hispanic — that undocumented parents should steer clear until ICE officers left. Montgomery County Police confirmed ICE’s presence at the school to The Banner. So did several parents and Montgomery County Council member Kristin Mink.

And Principal Bob Geiger Monday sent a letter to the school community about “unidentified law enforcement vehicles, possibly federal immigration enforcement officers” showing up to the school.

Homeland Security Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, however, told The Banner in an email that “ICE was NEVER at New Hampshire Estates Elementary.” She went on to describe an ICE traffic stop — she didn’t say where — that resulted in the arrest of a man she identified as Agustin Moreno Ortiz. The Banner’s attempts to contact Moreno Ortiz or his family were unsuccessful.

McLaughlin described him as a “criminal illegal alien” and suggested that worries about ICE’s presence were overblown.

“ICE is not conducting enforcement operations at, or ‘raiding,’ schools,” she wrote.

But many at the school on Tuesday said they felt that was exactly what ICE was doing — targeting students’ undocumented parents.

The Banner Tuesday morning spoke to several parents and others outside the school, many still shaken from ICE’s presence the day before. Undocumented parents expressed both appreciation and some wariness about invitations from documented parents and others to walk their children to and from school.

A woman who identified herself as Marisol, 47, declined to use her last name because it could jeopardize her family. Marisol said her husband saw ICE vehicles near the school on Monday and warned her to wait before taking their child to the school.

“I was scared. He came late yesterday,” Marisol said in Spanish while pointing to her son. She said some in her family live in constant fear.

“We put our faith in God they [ICE] don’t stop us.”

Patricia Sagastume, who is documented and has a daughter at the school, said ICE’s presence sent a chill through the community.

“It’s an uneasy feeling,” Sagastume, 31, said while standing near the elementary school on Carroll Avenue. “This is our new reality, unfortunately,” she said. “You have to watch your front and your back.”

The principal, in his letter, said the unidentified officers were “briefly present in our school parking lot, where it was observed that they transferred a detained person from one vehicle to another.” That person, from the timing of events, was presumably the person McLaughlin referred to as Moreno Ortiz.

That occurred at about 7:30 a.m. About 30 minutes later, Geiger said, similar unmarked vehicles were seen on the street in front of the school.

“These individuals did not interact with any of our students or families at the school, and they left the area in front of the school at about 8:20 a.m.,” which is 15 minutes before the start of the school’s arrival time for students, Geiger wrote.

Mink said three or four federal vehicles were at or near the campus Monday. She called them “known ICE vehicles” and said they had been “active in the area.”

She was among about 15 volunteers who on Tuesday stood in front of the school and across the street wearing signs fastened by lanyards that read in both English and Spanish, “Community Support” and “I can walk children to school or wait at the bus stop with them.”

There are about 455 students at New Hampshire Estates Elementary School, which serves students who are pre-K through the second grade.

“The community is going to show up. We are going to rally around. We are going to make it clear, not only to ICE, but also to community members, that we stand shoulder to shoulder here against ICE,” Mink said.

‘You have to treat people better’

Mink said what happened in Silver Spring this week is directly related to federal enforcement in nearby Washington, D.C.

“Given the dramatic increase of enforcement that we’ve seen in D.C., areas of Montgomery County that are near the border are being impacted by the spillover,” she said.

Felipe Morales, 69, who lives in the neighborhood and often makes sure children get on buses safely, said in Spanish that in his nearly 40 years in the country, he’s “never seen so much panic” among Hispanics.

He said ICE is often in the neighborhood, and about two weeks ago, they detained a neighbor, a man in his 30s.

“To this day, we don’t know where he is,” Morales said.

He said ICE needs to stop terrorizing hard-working Hispanics, especially by showing up at an elementary school.

“A school is not right,” Morales said. “The problem is treatment. They are treating Hispanics like animals ... like we are terrorists. You have to treat people better.”

Jennifer, a mother of a student, declined to give her last name for fear it could jeopardize her family. She said in Spanish on Tuesday that Hispanics in the neighborhood are scared and have few options to remain safe.

Jennifer dropped her son off at the school on Tuesday morning.

“I’m praying they don’t come back,” she said of ICE. “But if it’s not today, it could be another day.”