Two people were hospitalized Wednesday morning after federal immigration officials opened fire on a vehicle in Glen Burnie, federal and Anne Arundel County officials said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were conducting a “targeted enforcement operation” in Glen Burnie, an ICE spokesperson said in a statement. Having identified the driver of a van as their target, agents approached him and told him to turn the engine off.

The spokesperson said Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, an immigrant from Portugal who had overstayed his visa, refused their orders and instead “began ramming his van into several ICE vehicles.”

“He then drove his van directly at ICE officers, it appeared he was trying to run them over,” the spokesperson wrote in bold text. “Fearing for their lives and public safety, the officers defensively fired their service weapons, striking the driver. Sousa-Martins then wrecked his van between two buildings, injuring the passenger.”

Sousa-Martins was shot while the passenger sustained whiplash, the ICE spokesperson said. ICE identified the passenger as Salomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel, a native of El Salvador who was in the U.S. illegally.

Justin Mulcahy, a county Police Department spokesman, said officers responded around 10:50 a.m. to the 500 block of West Court for the shooting. After ICE agents fired at the vehicle, Mulcahy said, it accelerated into the wooded area behind the homes on the street in the Parke West neighborhood.

Both injured men were taken by ambulance to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, said Lt. Josh Bramble, a spokesperson for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.

Mulcahy did not say whether any federal agents were injured. The man shot by ICE was in stable condition at the hospital, he said.

The department’s Criminal Investigations Division is leading the probe into the shooting, while the FBI is investigating the alleged assault on ICE agents, Mulcahy said. ICE also will conduct an internal investigation.

“It’s a multilayered incident with obviously our federal partners involved,” Anne Arundel County Police Chief Amal Awad said Wednesday afternoon at the scene.

The ICE spokesperson said agents rendered medical aid. They added the agents were not severely injured.

“Our brave officers are risking their lives every day to keep American communities safe by arresting and removing illegal aliens from our streets,” the spokesperson said.

Authorities cordoned off a corner of the suburban neighborhood in the wake of the shooting. An Anne Arundel County Police Forensic Service van was parked within the established perimeter.

People with ICE and FBI uniforms were on the scene.

Neighbor James Hicks said he heard ICE chased a man from the Walmart around the corner into the neighborhood.

Hicks said the person being chased drove a van between two houses and came to a stop in a wooded area. He said he heard three gunshots and later saw the man on a stretcher.

“Shot him three times, I seen him laid out,” Hicks said. “Guy didn’t deserve to be killed, but he shouldn’t have tried to run them over.”

Another neighbor who did not provide her name said ICE agents began firing from their vehicle, describing the shooting as brazen, given that there could have been children playing outside on a sunny Christmas Eve.

Gov. Wes Moore said on X he has been made aware of the shooting.

There have been at least nine immigration enforcement-related shootings this year, according to recent reporting by The Trace, a news organization focused on gun violence. At least five people have been shot in separate incidents by agents with ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection or Homeland Security.

One of them was killed after he was shot by an ICE officer whom he was dragging with his car in the Franklin Park suburb of Chicago. On several occasions, immigration agents fired at cars that tried to hit them or drive away.

ICE has been active in Maryland. According to the most recent available data, the agency made over 700 arrests in Maryland between Sept. 1 and Oct. 15. September was the state’s busiest month of enforcement this year, while October was trending close behind.

County Councilwoman Allison Pickard, a Democrat who represents Glen Burnie, expressed dismay about ICE enforcement operations.

“Is this the new normal? Is this what we should all be expecting not just in Anne Arundel County but across the country? ICE just rolls in at 11 in the morning on a sunny day and there’s gunfire,” Pickard said. “It’s upsetting to know somebody was shot three times at 11 in the morning on Christmas Eve in my community.”

Pickard also said she was concerned about a potential lack of scrutiny when ICE uses force, especially given that Congress voted to triple the agency’s budget. She noted that Maryland created a unit within the Attorney General’s Office to investigate all fatalities by police, while also requiring officers to wear body cameras.

“I know what we’re doing at the local level both from a training perspective and an accountability perspective after an incident happens. I just don’t know if this incredible ramp up of ICE, are they going to be held to that same level of scrutiny?” Pickard said. “I think it’s something we should all be asking, no matter where you fall on the issue.”

County Executive Steuart Pittman echoed Pickard’s concern.

“This is exactly the kind of incident that I and my peers across the country have dreaded. We have federal law-enforcement operating in our jurisdictions without the traditional notification of local police and often without identification,” the Democrat said. “It is a recipe for violence, and that is what we experienced in our county today.”

Pittman added that authorities do not yet know all the facts of the case yet, “but will be investigating it as we do all shootings in our county.”

“We pray for a fast recovery for the injured,” Pittman said.

Pickard described the community where the shooting happened as diverse.

“Glen Burnie has a high immigrant, Hispanic population,” Pickard said. “It’s very diverse.”

The Latino population in Glen Burnie has been among the fastest growing in Maryland, expanding by at least 87% since 2010.

Glen Burnie is about 12% Hispanic/Latino and about 5% of the area’s residents were born in Latin America, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2023 Five-Year American Community Survey.

This article has been updated.

Photojournalist Kaitlin Newman and data editor Greg Morton contributed to this article.

Correction: ICE provided the incorrect spelling of Salomon Serrano-Esquivel’s name.