Woman linked to Trump Press Secretary Leavitt freed by immigration agency

The parent of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew was granted enslaved from ICE custody arsenic conflicting claims look implicit her migration and narration to Leavitt.

A Brazilian-born pistillate with familial ties to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is being released from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody arsenic she has contested imaginable deportation, her lawyer has said.

Bruna Ferreira, a longtime nonmigratory of Massachusetts, received a $1,500 enslaved connected Monday from an migration justice astatine a Louisiana detention centre. Ferreira was arrested by ICE agents past period portion driving to prime up her 11-year-old lad successful New Hampshire. She was antecedently engaged to Leavitt’s brother, Michael.

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Her lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, said successful a substance connection that “we argued that she wasn’t a information oregon a formation risk,” and added: “The authorities stipulated to our statement and ne'er erstwhile argued that she was a transgression amerciable alien and waived appeal.”

A protester is arrested arsenic members of the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) behaviour migration raids connected the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina [File: Sam Wolfe/Reuters]

The White House has sought to region Leavitt from the case, saying successful a connection that Ferreira had not spoken to the property caput “in years”. Trump medication officials person not provided grounds for their claims astir Ferreira’s history.

However, tribunal filings, household photographs, and erstwhile reporting bespeak Ferreira lived with her lad and shared custody with Michael Leavitt. In an interrogation with The Washington Post, Ferreira said she had chosen Karoline Leavitt to beryllium her son’s godmother.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said successful an email that Ferreira is simply a “criminal amerciable alien” who had been detained for battery, an allegation Pomerleau denies. DHS besides stated that Ferreira entered the US connected a B2 tourer visa that required her to permission the state successful 1999.

“She volition person periodic mandatory check-ins with ICE instrumentality enforcement to guarantee she is abiding by the presumption of her release,” the DHS spokesperson added.

A Trump medication authoritative described Ferreira arsenic an absentee genitor who “has ne'er lived with her son”. The authoritative said the kid has lived full-time with Michael Leavitt successful New Hampshire since birth.

Ferreira said the White House’s characterisation of her arsenic idiosyncratic who had ne'er lived with her kid is “disgusting” and untrue.

According to the North Andover Eagle-Tribune, Ferreira and Michael Leavitt were engaged successful 2014, erstwhile their lad Mike Jr was 8 months old.

Pomerleau disputes those accounts, insisting his lawsuit has shared custody. He said Ferreira came to the US arsenic a toddler and aboriginal enrolled successful the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, which grants extortion from deportation to radical brought to the state without authorisation arsenic children. According to him, the 33-year-old has maintained ineligible presumption nether DACA and is present seeking a greenish card.

Efforts by erstwhile President Donald Trump to extremity DACA during his archetypal word were blocked by the US Supreme Court.

Karoline Leavitt has declined to remark connected the case. The existent property caput roseate to prominence arsenic Donald Trump’s spokeswoman during his 2024 run and present serves arsenic a cardinal subordinate of the White House. She has go 1 of the starring defenders of the administration’s assertive crackdown connected undocumented immigrants and has publically supported stricter ICE operations.