Family grieves as pastor Max Villatoro awaits deportation

Those who know him say Max Villatoro, an Iowa City pastor and father of four, is not a criminal.

For the past five years, he and his wife, Gloria, 33, have been co-pastors of Torre Fuerte, a Hispanic service held at the First Mennonite Church, 405 Myrtle Ave., at 5 p.m. every Sunday.

Gloria said Sunday her husband, 42, was taken into custody outside their home at the Hilltop Mobile Home Park in Iowa City early Tuesday morning by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. She said her husband gave a neighbor a ride to work and had just returned to their home when he was arrested.

"I was in the shower. When I finished, I saw that the lights were still on in the living room, and I thought it was strange because he never leaves the lights on. I called him, and he answered me and told me what had happened. At first I thought it was just a joke," she said. "He had a dentist appointment that day, and said he was going to try to work a half-day. He told me when we went to visit him on Tuesday that he told the officer, 'Go in and tell my wife, Gloria,' but no one did."

Villatoro is being held by ICE in the Linn County Jail in Cedar Rapids on immigration charges, and he faces deportation to Honduras.

"That was very characteristic of Max — he's always helping somebody. It's no surprise that the morning before he got taken he had already done somebody else a favor," said Karla Stoltzfus Detweiler, a pastor of community life for the First Mennonite Church.

Gloria Villatoro said her husband came to the U.S. from Tegucigalpa, Honduras — the country's capital city — more than two decades ago and had secured temporary citizenship through a work permit around the year 2000. She said they met in Iowa City and were married in the same time frame. Gloria Villatoro said she is originally from Sinaloa, Mexico, and became a U.S. citizen when she was very young.

According to the Associated Press, Max Villatoro pleaded guilty to immigration record tampering in 1999, but his wife maintains he was issued a valid work permit the following year.

According to a statement sent Friday from ICE, an agency of Homeland Security, the department is "focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of convicted criminals and public safety threats. The agency exercises prosecutor discretion, on a case-by-case basis, as necessary to focus resources on these priorities."

That statement doesn't satisfy some who know Villatoro.

"This is not the kind of person who should be a priority for deportation from our country. He is not a criminal," Stoltzfus Detweiler said. "He is being portrayed as a criminal, but he is not."

Gloria Villatoro said she is devastated by the arrest and worries constantly about her husband and their four children: Anthony, 15; Edna, 13; Angela, 10; and Aileen, 7. All four children are also legal citizens.

"We have no information about how long he'll be there, and neither does he," Gloria Villatoro said. "We're devastated, and I'm just asking God to give me the strength to go through this storm, but the winds are strong."

Stoltzfus Detweiler made an announcement Sunday morning to those who attended the morning service about the Villatoros' situation. She said his lawyer, local attorney Dan Vondra, requested that members of the congregation hand-write and sign letters that will be placed in Max Villatoro's legal record.

Members of the congregation wrote several dozen letters.

"All the support has been amazing. People in the congregation and in the community are all calling me and praying for me and visiting me and my children," Gloria Villatoro said.

On Friday, more than 100 people gathered outside the Linn County Jail to rally against Max Villatoro's deportation.

Reach Andy Davis at 319-887-5404 or at aldavis@press-citizen.com, and follow him on Twitter as @BylineAndyDavis.