A scuffle between federal agents and a person they were trying to detain spilled into a high school in north suburban Gurnee Thursday morning, school officials said.

Warren Township High School District 121 Superintendent Dr. Denny Woestman sent an email to parents shortly after 9:30 a.m. to tell them about the incident.

Woestman said that he believes the incident started with an off-campus encounter between federal agents and adults who are not related to the school district. He said the adults then came onto WTHS's O'Plaine campus, with federal agents following.

The agents followed one of the adults through a door into an O'Plaine campus building. The door was open as it was being "used appropriately" by students and staff coming as part of a normal school day, Woestman said.

Woestman said inside the building, there was a physical altercation between the federal agents and the adults, which happened in front of students and staff.

The adults were taken into custody and removed from the school's campus, Woestman said.

The Department of Homeland Security said Border Patrol agents were attempting to arrest two undocumented immigrants "with rap sheets" when the men sped away.

DHS identified the men as Josafat Garcia-Roa and Samuel Suarez-Cuevas. A spokesperson said they had previously been deported.

Gurnee police said the men led officers on a high-speed chase that started outside the village and lasted about 10 minutes. DHS said during that chase, Garcia-Roa hit several vehicles and lost a tire at one point. He then pulled into the high school parking lot and ditched the car, DHS officials said.

DHS said Suarez ran into the school, while Garcia-Roa was detained in the parking lot.

Woestman said he has reviewed surveillance video of the suspects and Border Patrol entering a side door that special programming students were using at the time. He said a Border Patrol official called later in the day to explain what happened.

"He did confirm that they don't actively pursue schools or churches, and their teams are not doing that," Woestman said. "But if there was an active threat, obviously this is a scenario where their agents felt compelled to come into the school district grounds to keep staff and students safe. I don't know what's going on in their heads at the time, but that aligns with what he told me."

He also noted about 40% of the school's student body is Hispanic.

There are reports that agents may have bumped into some students as they ran into the school, which Woestman said was possible. Gurnee police said no one was injured.

A spokesperson for DHS told us, "Border Patrol does not conduct enforcements near schools but will not allow criminal illegal aliens to put the public in harm's way."