White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew’s mother has been detained by US immigration agents. The move was made amid Donald Trump’s administration’s immigration crackdown.
Leavitt’s family member Bruna Ferreira moved to the Boston area after she migrated to the United States from Brazil with her family when she was a child. Ferreira, 33, has been taken into custody at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Louisiana, according to Boston radio station WBUR.
Leavitt’s brother, Michael Leavitt, was previously in a relationship with Ferreira and they share a son, Michael Leavitt Jr, who is 11 years old.
The Boston Globe reported that Ferreira was leaving her home to pick Michael Jr. up from school in New Hampshire when her car was “suddenly swarmed” by ICE agents. Ferreira’s sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, told the outlet that the agents demanded her name and driver’s license, though Ferreira didn’t have an identification card on her at the time.
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“They were not the most gentle with her,” Dos Santos Rodrigues told the outlet. “I’m sure my sister was terrified, frantic. She’s been here since she was six years old. She’s more American than she is anything else. I’m sure she tried to just use whatever she could come up with in the moment. However, it didn’t really help very much.”
Following the incident, a White House source confirmed that the “individual is the mother of Karoline’s nephew” and added “they have not spoken in many years.”
“The child has lived full time in New Hampshire with his father since he was born. He has never resided with his mother,” the source continued.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson also confirmed that “ICE arrested Bruna Caroline Ferreria [sic], a criminal illegal alien from Brazil,” per The Guardian. “She has a previous arrest for battery. She entered the US on a B2 tourist visa that required her to depart the US by 6 June 1999. She is currently at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center and is in removal proceedings.”
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“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, all individuals unlawfully present in the United States are subject to deportation,” the spokesperson added.
Additionally, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told WBUR that Ferreira had a “previous arrest for battery” before she was taken into ICE custody.
Leavitt, 28, is best known for serving as Trump’s spokesperson. When he began his second presidential term in January, Leavitt made history when she became the youngest-ever White House press secretary.
