Carmen Marrero’s three-year-old son, Brian, holds his baby sister at yesterday’s news conference.

The Providence Journal Andrew Dickerman

PROVIDENCE — Days after the arrest of an illegal Guatemalan immigrant and subsequent apparent suicide of a housemate at the same address, a Guatemalan diplomat, the head of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union and community activists yesterday blamed “the harsh policies of immigration” with destroying families and “terrorizing a community.”

Immigration agents arrested Mynor Montufar last Friday, two days after he received media attention as the father of Rhode Island’s first baby of 2008, and another man, Rodrigo Perez, as Perez was allegedly trying to flee the premises.

Several hours later, David De La Roca, one of Montufar’s housemates, was found hanging by a belt in a locked bedroom.

Montufar and Perez are both in detention and Montufar will be deported, authorities said.

De La Roca’s death is under police investigation. A spokeswoman for the state medical examiner’s office said an autopsy on De La Roca has been completed and the department will issue a statement. The spokeswoman gave no time frame for that release.

Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU’s local affiliate, was among several speakers at a news conference yesterday who linked De La Roca’s apparent suicide to fear of deportation as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents moved in on the apartment at 174 Bellevue Ave. in Providence.

Brown said De La Roca’s death and other recent controversial cases mark “the human toll” from “the harsh policies of immigration.”

He said those include the case of Danny Sigui, “a hard-working immigrant who was conscientious enough to go and testify at a gangland murder trial and, for his civic deed, his reward for his civic deed was to be punished by deportation,” in 2003. Brown also cited the experience of Edgar Velasquez, whose boss allegedly had Velasquez deported to Mexico after he sustained a severe chain-saw injury.

“And now we have Mynor Montufar, a hard-working immigrant,” said Brown, “and David De La Roca, who, as far as anyone can tell, committed suicide as a result of immigration raiding the apartment.”

Carlos Avila Sandoval, the Guatemalan consul general for Rhode Island, recalled the “military-style tactics” he saw during an ICE raid at a New Bedford factory last year. The raid led to more than 300 people either being placed into detention or deported.

“It makes me sad to see this over and over again,” said Avila Sandoval. “Personally it really makes me sad, how continuously this terror is being used against people — mostly from Guatemala.”

Roberto Gonzalez, an East Providence immigration lawyer, said, “What we have here is something that is happening throughout the country, and it’s happening in Rhode Island, and it will continue to happen until we have immigration reform.” He called “typical” the difficulty that Montufar’s girlfriend, Carmen L. Marrero, said she was having in trying to find out where Montufar was being held.

Gonzalez said, “ICE is like a top-secret Gestapo organization,” that routinely withholds the whereabouts of detainees.

An ICE spokeswoman told The Journal two days in a row that Montufar was at a Bristol County detention center in Massachusetts when he was still being held in Providence. He was moved to Massachusetts yesterday afternoon, according to ICE regional spokesman Mike Gilhooly.

Gilhooly said Montufar had two criminal convictions: one for disorderly conduct last year, and another for simple domestic assault in 2006. He said Montufar also paid fines for non-criminal convictions for driving with a suspended license, and driving with an expired license.

ICE did not arrest Montufar last Friday for any criminal violations, however. He was arrested on an outstanding administrative deportation warrant for overstaying an assigned date of voluntary departure.

Gilhooly also called “preposterous” the characterization of ICE as a “Gestapo-like organization.”

“The men and women of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are highly trained and highly professional federal law enforcement officers, who take pride in the agency’s critical mission to protect national security and public safety,” Gilhooly said.

Told that a witness to the arrest — Lilliam Muniz — alleged yesterday that ICE agents beat Perez as he was face down on the ground, Gilhooly said, “There is no indication that any such allegation you brought forward to us is true.”

However, he urged that anyone with information that any ICE officer “acted in anything but a professional manner” should report it to the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility.

Gilhooly also responded to allegations that families are not provided with information about where people are being detained.

“We do provide phone access for detainees at facilities. We do provide free calls to pro bono attorneys and organizations and also to consulates and we do provide ability to make collect calls to families,” he said. “Families can call ICE offices and request information as well.”

kziner@projo.com