A judge has ordered that Bruna Ferreira, the mother of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew, who was being held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, be released on bond. Immigration Judge Cynthia Goodman set bail at $1,500, the minimum required, to free Ferreira, who was being held in a Louisiana facility and facing deportation proceedings.
The 33-year-old woman, a Brazilian citizen who came to the United States when she was six years old, was arrested Nov. 12 in Revere, Massachusetts, while picking up her son. Ferreira shares custody of an 11-year-old son with her ex-fiancé, Michael Leavitt, Karoline Leavitt’s brother. The case immediately received media attention because of its connection to the White House spokesperson, one of the voices defending the Donald Trump administration’s deportation campaign.
Lucas Vega, attorney for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), did not oppose the judge’s decision, saying he does not represent a danger to society or a flight risk.
From the beginning, DHS accused Ferreira of being a “criminal” and the Administration portrayed her as an absentee mother who had not had contact with Karoline Leavitt in years. Ferreira, in statements to The Washington Post, He denied the accusations and showed a different relationship with Leavitt’s family. “I asked Karoline to be godmother to my only sister,” she said in a video interview with the newspaper on Thursday. “I made a mistake trusting him…I can’t even imagine why they are creating this story.”
The White House released a statement saying Ferreira had not spoken to Leavitt in years and had never lived with his son. The Brazilian said the statements are “disgusting” and false. Before his arrest, he said his routine consisted of running cleaning and clothing manufacturing businesses, taking yoga classes and spending time with his son. He said he drove him to school, cheered him on at his sports games and filled his room with teddy bears, video games and boxing gloves, “everything a kid needs,” he said. The Washington job.
In 1998, Ferreira came to the United States from Brazil, where she lived with her grandmother, to join her parents. At one point, he faced deportation, but in 2012 he applied for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program), the legal pathway opened by Barack Obama’s administration for undocumented migrants who arrived in the country as minors. This year, as part of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign, the administration reopened his deportation case, according to Ferreira’s lawyers. Most of her family members have legal status, but she was unable to complete the procedure, according to her defenders.
Under Ferreira, the government has followed its usual pattern of arresting migrants, accusing them of being criminals, despite the fact that the vast majority of those arrested have no criminal records. Her lawyer believes they may be referring to an incident in 2008, when 16-year-old Ferreira was summoned to juvenile court after a fight with another girl outside a Dunkin’ Donuts, but she was never arrested and the case was dismissed.
As the White House did, Michael Leavitt also said Ferreira never lived with the son they share. In court documents he filed in New Hampshire in 2015, however, he wrote that they shared a home and were registered at the same address, according to the newspaper.
Leavitt and Ferreira were engaged, but separated before marriage. Their son resides with his father and stepmother in New Hampshire, but Ferreira might pick him up on weekends. The courts, where both traded accusations of abuse and neglect, ordered joint custody.
Ferreira claims that Michael and his father, Bob Leavitt, told his sister in recent weeks that the Brazilian should “voluntarily deport herself” and try to return legally. If he did, he would not be able to return to the United States for a decade under current law. “I have no involvement in his detention by ICE,” his ex-fiancée wrote to The Post Office. “I have no control over this and I had no involvement at all,” he said, saying he wanted his son to stay in contact with his mother.
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