Sandra Diaz was nearing the end of her shift cleaning at the Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal in Cranston Tuesday evening when an immigration agent approached her and asked her to come into a small room.

Four of her coworkers were asked to do the same, each directed to a separate room, she said.

Once in the room, agents questioned Diaz, 40, a native of Guatemala who has been in this country illegally for eight years. Then, she says, she and her coworkers were taken to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in downtown Providence for more questioning.

“They put handcuffs and leg shackles on me and fingerprinted me,” Diaz said in Spanish, beginning to cry yesterday as she discussed the raid with a reporter at St. Theresa Church in Providence.

The agents let her go four hours after detaining her.

Diaz said she was unsure why she was released, but says it is probably because she suffers from heart problems. “I had a lot of chest pains and they asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital,” Diaz said. “I told them no, I just wanted to go home.”

She awaits a meeting with ICE officials on Aug. 4.

She is now worried about how she will afford food and rent without a job and the possibility of being sent back to Guatemala.

“When I first came to this country, I came with a visa and I didn’t think of staying,” she said. “But my husband is very sick with kidney problems, and I was able to get work here cleaning, so I can send him money [in Guatemala].”

Before starting work at the courthouse in April, Diaz said she worked as a janitor at the Community College of Rhode Island for three years. In both cases, she was employed by Falcon Maintenance Co. of Johnston, she said.

“I am afraid that they will detain me, that they will deport me,” Diaz said. “I don’t want to go back because things are not good in my country right now.”

Diaz and 30 other immigrants working at six courthouses across the state were arrested by immigration officials Tuesday evening, aided by the Rhode Island State Police. Bruce Foucart, special agent from ICE’s Boston office, said at a news conference yesterday that 19 of the workers are being held at various detention centers, although he would not say where. He said 12 of the workers have been conditionally released on humanitarian grounds, such as a medical condition or being the primary caregiver of small children.

The workers are accused of being in this country illegally and could face identity theft and document fraud charges, Foucart said.

“Simply put, illegal aliens using fake documents to work in the U.S. are a vulnerability to sensitive security sites,” he said. If they are found guilty of a crime and sentenced, they will serve jail time and will then be deported, according to Foucart.

But to immigrant-rights groups, the arrested workers were simply trying to support their families. At a rally yesterday afternoon outside the Garrahy Judicial Complex in Providence, about 70 immigrant advocates denounced the raid.

“We are just here to stand with our brothers and sisters and to highlight the need to respect human dignity,” said the Rev. Tom Ferland of St. Michael Church in Providence. “Sometimes even in applying the law, we can be abusive and disrespectful of the human dignity we all have as children of God.”

The Rev. James Ruggieri, pastor of Providence’s St. Patrick School, said he would open the school doors at 4 p.m. today so that members of Greater Boston Legal Services and others wishing to help the arrested workers could discuss how best to help the 31 workers and their families.

“Justice and human rights are an integral part of the gospel of Jesus,” said Father Ruggieri, “and not just for the people with legal documentation to be in an country, but because they are human beings.”

Lucy Contreras, 45, was also arrested in the raid. She began her 5 p.m. shift at the Licht Judicial Complex in Providence, an employee of TriState Enterprises of North Providence. Previously, Contreras says she worked in factories and cleaning houses.

A diabetic, Contreras was conditionally released and is scheduled to meet with immigration officials July 30.

“I am sad,” she said, her eyes filling with tears, during the rally in Providence yesterday. “I feel like a criminal. But I am not a bad person. I am a mother who is trying to work and help her children.”

Two other women who were arrested and released on humanitarian grounds lifted the cuffs of their pants to show the electronic bracelets on their ankles.

One of the women, Doli Guerrero, wept as she spoke to the crowd.

“First of all, gentlemen, I am not a criminal,” she said. “I came to this country looking for a better life for my family, studies for my children. That doesn’t take away my right to work in this country. I’m not a criminal to wear [an ankle] bracelet where they have to follow where I go. My only crime was to work in this country to provide for my children to have a better life, doing something that many of you didn’t want to do, cleaning toilets, cleaning offices…

“I didn’t take anyone’s job; they are jobs that you don’t want to do Not only do we come here and leave our whole lives behind, we also have to leave your body behind. I already lost a finger working here” in the United States, she said, “but no one cares [about that].”

Many people in the crowd held white carnations. Roxanna Rivera, head of the Local SEIU 615, which includes janitors, said the carnations symbolized that “immigrant workers come here in a peaceful manner to provide for their families.”

Said Rivera, “We are here to denounce what happened in this courthouse last night and other courthouses throughout the state. We are here to denounce the raids. Raids do nothing to address the issue of immigration reform … this has sent a message to the entire immigrant community that they are not safe here.”

jjordan@projo.com