Dolly Guerrero shows the tracking device that she wears around her ankle since the courthouse arrests.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

PROVIDENCE –– Cindy Cabrera expects to lose her father.

The 17-year-old soon-to-be high school senior isn’t usually a pessimist. But in this case, she says it’s easier to expect the worst.

“Most likely, he’s going to be deported,” she says. “I don’t want to get my hopes up. I just try to spend all the time with him I can.”

Yesterday, the girl spent nearly seven hours with her father on the crowded sidewalk in front of St. Teresa’s Church in Olneyville, where several Hispanic families gathered to raise money for 31 suspected illegal immigrants arrested in a sweep of Rhode Island courthouses last month.

Cindy’s mother and father were arrested in the raid.

Her mother was released after immigration authorities determined she was a legal resident. Her father, Gustavo, who is here illegally, was released on bond. But Cindy expects him to stay with the family only as long as it takes his case to move through the federal judicial system.

That could take several months, as lawyers will fight to keep his family together.

Federal authorities attached a wallet-sized GPS tracker to Gustavo Cabrera’s right ankle. They instituted a strict curfew. And they have explicitly banned the father of four children — three of them citizens and the fourth a legal resident — from working.

“We had a little money saved up,” says Gustavo, who until July 15 worked as a janitor at the J. Joseph Garrahy Judicial Complex. “It’s gone.”

In front of St. Teresa’s yesterday, Cindy and her 13-year-old sister, Melissa, offered plastic cups of homemade ceviche – a chilled combination of seafood, tomatoes and cilantro – to passersby for $1.50 each. Volunteers at nearby tables sold Mexican and Colombian dishes, while others sold things like used sneakers and baby clothes.

Gustavo, 48, stood behind his daughters, the black ankle bracelet in plain sight. He said in Spanish that he came to the United States from Guatemala in 1984. In addition to cleaning the Garrahy complex, he said he worked full-time for a Cranston linen company.

“I can’t work anymore,” he said.

The fundraiser produced an estimated $23,000, according to St. Teresa’s organizer Juan Garcia, who planned yesterday’s event. The money came primarily from large donations from local churches and the Guatemalan government, which contributed $15,000.

“It’s the obligation of Guatemala to support all Guatemalans regardless of where they are,” said Guatemalan general consul Carlos Escobeda, who stopped by the fundraiser at around noon.

Garcia said the money would be distributed evenly among the families on Friday. “This will help for this month, maybe next, but this [legal] process will take more than a year,” he said.

Anthony Solomon Jr., who works with his father at nearby Anthony’s Drug Store, said he felt compelled to contribute.

“They’re hard-working people,” he said. “If they’re causing trouble it’s one thing. If not, they should be left alone. They’re doing jobs no one wants to do.”

That’s an argument that Terry Gorman has heard before.

The president of the group Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement largely faults employers for targeting illegal immigrants.

“If the employers were paying fair wages to people who clean toilets and make beds then Americans would be doing those jobs,” he said when reached by phone yesterday. “But Americans won’t do those jobs for $7 an hour.”

After last month’s raids, the governor terminated all executive branch contracts with the companies that employed the workers, TriState Enterprises and Falcon Maintenance.

But Gorman said he has little sympathy for Gustavo Cabrera.

“People understand when they come here that they have the risk of being discovered, and if they get discovered they get deported,” Gorman said. “You don’t like to see anyone deprived of something, but her father should be deported. He put himself at risk.”

Meanwhile, Cindy says her father’s arrest has complicated other family activities.

“He can’t come to our softball games,” says the Elmwood Little League centerfielder. Gustavo used to attend all the games, often bringing the team Gatorade.

Cindy says she and her brothers and sisters try to help the family the best they can.

The Classical High School student is trying to save up for a car and college, but uses some of the money from her part-time job at Honey Dew Donuts to help the family pay for gas.

What will she do if her father is deported?

“Maybe put college on the back burner,” she answers, her eyes welling with tears. “Tell Governor Carcieri I said thank you. There are drug dealers and rapists out there and he’s doing this to my father.”

The governor implemented an executive order cracking down on illegal immigration in March, but denied any involvement in last month’s raid on state’s courthouses, which was conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the help of the state police.

Cindy says her father has done nothing wrong.

“We go out grocery shopping. People look at my father like he’s a criminal,” she says. “The only thing he’s guilty of is being a hard worker and a good father.”

speoples@projo.com