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Father Faces Deportation After Making Headlines
Man's Baby Was State's First Of 2008

POSTED: 10:39 am EST January 7, 2008
UPDATED: 10:50 am EST January 7, 2008


PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The father of Rhode Island's first baby of 2008 faces deportation after being arrested for violating immigration laws, while his roommate, also an illegal immigrant, was found dead of a suspected suicide hours after the arrest.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Mynor Montufar at his apartment Friday after local newspapers and television stations showed him and Carmen Marrero as parents of the first baby born in the state after the new year rolled in, officials said.

ICE spokeswoman Paula Grenier said the timing of Montufar's arrest was coincidental to the publicity surrounding his child. Another man also was arrested at the apartment, although Grenier would not identify him, citing agency policy.

Another illegal immigrant who shared the couple's apartment, David De La Roca, 25, was found dead in a suspected suicide shortly after Montufar was taken into custody. He was found hanging from a belt in a locked bedroom, according to a police report.

When searching the apartment, ICE agents did not enter the locked bedroom where De La Roca was later found dead, Grenier said. It was not immediately clear when he died, but officials at the state medical examiner's office said they were planning an autopsy.

The president of the Mexican-American Association of Rhode Island, Antonio Barajas, said an investigation would show whether the death was a result of distress triggered by fear of deportation.

"There are two tragedies," Barajas said. "Hopefully an investigation will be conducted to determine whether they are related or not."

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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