One of the latest people arrested by federal immigration officers has family ties to the White House press secretary. As NBC News reports, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Bruna Ferreira into custody this month in Massachusetts, labeling her a "criminal illegal alien from Brazil" because her tourist visa allegedly expired in June 1999. It turns out the detainee has a connection to press secretary Karoline Leavitt: Ferreira is the mother of Leavitt's nephew.
WBUR reports that Ferreira had a child with Leavitt's brother Michael about a decade ago, but the boy has lived only with Michael Leavitt in New Hampshire since that time. The couple reportedly have not spoken in years, nor has the child spoken with Ferreira. She is currently being held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center and faces deportation proceedings. "Karoline had no involvement whatsoever in this matter," an administration official tells WBUR.
Ferreira's family, in a statement on GoFundMe, said she was brought to the US as a child in 1998 and maintained legal status for a time through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation. However, DHS notes that DACA recipients can lose that protection if they are convicted of a crime, and a spokesperson says Ferreira has a "previous arrest for battery." No details about that case were available.
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