The mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew has been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Revere, Massachusetts, as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Bruna Ferreira, 33, a Boston-area resident who moved to the US from Brazil as a child, is now in custody at an ICE facility in Louisiana, according to WBUR radio. She was arrested on 12 November while leaving her home to pick up her son from school in New Hampshire, her sister Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues told the Boston Globe.
Ferreira had a relationship with Michael Leavitt, 35, the press secretary’s brother, and they have an 11-year-old son, Michael Leavitt Jr. A White House source said the child has lived full-time in New Hampshire with his father since birth and has never resided with his mother. Karoline Leavitt stated: “My only concern has always been the safety, wellbeing, and privacy of my son.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed that Ferreira is a “criminal illegal alien from Brazil” with a previous arrest for battery, and that she entered the US on a tourist visa that expired in 1999. She is now in removal proceedings. Her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, said she is in the middle of a “lawful immigration process” for US citizenship, and her sister has started a GoFundMe page that has raised over $16,000 for legal costs.
Ferreira has maintained her legal status through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca), a program that grants temporary protection from deportation for those who entered the country as children. The Associated Press reported that Daca recipients have been among those detained in recent immigration sweeps.
