montufar

PROVIDENCE — Revising an earlier statement, immigration authorities said media publicity about Mynor Montufar, father of Rhode Island’s first baby of 2008, led Immigration and Customs Enforcement to “prioritize his arrest” because he posed a “potential flight risk.”

ICE spokeswoman Paula Grenier had previously called the publicity and subsequent arrest “a coincidence.”

Montufar, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, was arrested Friday on an outstanding deportation warrant, two days after he and his girlfriend were featured by news media for the birth of their daughter.

Agents arrested Montufar and another man at 174 Bellevue Ave. on Friday morning.

One of several other tenants in the house — David De La Roca — was found hanged in a locked bedroom several hours later. That case is under police investigation, and an autopsy is pending.

On Sunday, ICE spokeswoman Paula Grenier called the timing of Montufar’s arrest — so close to media reports of the baby’s birth — “a coincidence.”

Yesterday, Grenier clarified that.

While the initiation of the case “was unrelated to last week’s news stories,” said Grenier, “the publicity that he was an illegal alien made ICE concerned that he was a flight risk, and we prioritized his apprehension.”

Asked what media published or broadcast the fact that Montufar was in the country illegally, Grenier said she could not get into case specifics.

Grenier said Montufar had agreed to leave the country voluntarily last August, on an administrative charge of being in the country illegally. However, Montufar failed to comply, and remained in the country.

“He’s been wanted by ICE since his voluntary departure period expired, which was last year,” Grenier said. “He was a target for our fugitive operation team.” Grenier also said.

Yesterday, Montufar’s girlfriend, Carmen Marrero, questioned how immigration authorities were led to 174 Bellevue Ave. She said she and Montufar had previously lived on Althea Street, and she had not given out her new address until she had the baby at Women & Infants Hospital.

A hospital spokesperson said she could not answer whether immigration authorities had come to the hospital and sought Marrero’s address — which was the same as Montufar’s.

Grenier said Montufar is being held at the Bristol County House of Correction in Dartmouth, Mass., and will be deported to Guatemala.

Meanwhile, the Providence police are investigating the death of De La Roca, 25, whose body was found hanging from a window frame several hours after immigration agents arrested Montufar and another man who was apparently attempting to flee from the premises.

On Sunday, community leaders said De La Roca’s apparent suicide raised questions, including whether De La Roca hanged himself when federal agents entered the apartment because he feared deportation, whether De La Roca was already dead before agents arrived, and why agents did not force open the locked door.

Grenier, the ICE spokesperson, said agents “had consent to enter. They found two locked doors, knocked on them, and didn’t get an answer, so we didn’t go where we didn’t have consent.”

Marrero — the mother of the New Year’s baby — yesterday questioned why immigration authorities made the arrest.

“I feel so bad. How could they do that? They don’t know how many families they are breaking up,” she said.

Marrero said she learned about De La Roca’s apparent suicide, from her mother and sister, who were at the apartment when De La Roca’s friend jimmied open the locked door and saw the body hanging from a belt.

“It’s too many emotions,” she said yesterday. “I found out the guy hung himself — it’s so many emotions.”

Carolos Avila Sandovar, Guatemalan consul general in Rhode Island, said the consulate is arranging to have De La Roca’s body returned to Guatemala — after the autopsy is conducted.

Avila Sandovar said he met on Saturday with De La Roca’s brother, “and we of course, connected him with the funeral home, and we are already working with the funeral home.”

kziner@projo.com