A woman with family ties to the brother of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Massachusetts, a Trump administration official confirmed.
Bruna Caroline Ferreira, who shares an 11-year-old child with Michael Leavitt, is currently being held at an ICE facility in southern Louisiana, online records show.
She was arrested earlier this month in Revere, just northeast of downtown Boston, after overstaying her visa by 26 years, a source familiar with the case told New Hampshire ABC affiliate WMUR.
Michael Leavitt, a New Hampshire resident, was once in a relationship with Ferreria, but the couple separated about 10 years ago, a family member told New Hampshire Public Radio.
The boy lives with his father and stepmother, Michael Leavitt said, adding that Ferreria has maintained a relationship with the child.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Ferreira had previously been arrested for battery and is currently in removal proceedings. Ferreira, originally from Brazil, reportedly entered the U.S. with her family as a child on a tourist visa and was required to depart by June 6, 1999.
But according to her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, Ferreira arrived in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, an Obama-era policy that allows certain undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to avoid deportation and obtain work authorization.
He also insisted she has “no criminal record whatsoever.”
Speaking with WMUR, Pomerleau vehemently denied the allegations: “She’s not a criminal, illegal alien,” he said. “We’re hearing that said about anyone who’s not a U.S. citizen.”
Pomerlau did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning. A GoFundMe page set up by Ferreira’s sister said she was brought to the U.S. by their parents in December 1988, “when she was just a child.”
Since then, Ferreira has “maintained her legal status through DACA, followed every requirement, and has always strived to do the right thing,” Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues wrote.
Karoline Leavitt has not commented on the arrest.
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