Image source, Courtesy Ferreira Family
-
- author, Thais Karanka
- Author title, BBC News Brazil
Brazilian Bruna Caroline Ferreira was arrested by US Immigration Services earlier this month in Revere, Massachusetts, and is being held at a facility in Louisiana, radio station WBUR reported.
This case will be one of thousands of Brazilians who have been arrested amid the tightening of immigration policy in the United States during the second term of Republican President Donald Trump. However, he gained notoriety because Ferreira has a family connection to White House Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt.
The detainee is the mother of Trump’s 11-year-old press secretary’s nephew, and she was in a romantic relationship with her brother, Michael Levitt.
US Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Ferreira has a “history of arrest for assault” and that the Brazilian entered the United States (when she was a minor) on a tourist visa that required her to leave the country in 1999.
“Under the administration of President Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem, all individuals who are in an illegal situation in the United States are subject to deportation,” McLaughlin said, according to WBUR.
The Brazilian’s lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, said he was not aware of any charges against his client and described the arrest as “illegal.”
“As far as I know, she never received an arrest warrant. I don’t even know if they know who she is. We’ll find out the truth,” Pomerleau declared, adding that Ferreira failed to regularize her immigration status and is currently in the process of applying for permanent residency in the United States.
For his part, Levitt refused to comment on the arrest.
Image source, Getty Images
A representative for the Trump administration confirmed the relationship between Ferrera, Michael Levitt and a White House spokesman, but stressed that “Caroline had nothing to do with this matter.”
Ferreira’s sister, Graziela dos Santos Rodriguez, has started a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe to help cover legal expenses related to the Brazilian’s arrest.
“Bronna arrived in the United States with our parents in December 1998, still a child, and entered on a visa,” Rodriguez wrote on the website.
“Since then, she has always done everything in her power to build an honest, stable and right life. She has always maintained her legal status through DACA, complied with all demands and never stopped doing the right thing,” he added.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a program created in 2012, during the Barack Obama administration, that grants temporary residency and work authorization — including a Social Security number — to immigrants who entered the United States illegally as children.
Despite these legal protections, thousands of DACA recipients have been detained in immigration operations during the Trump administration.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told The Associated Press that people “who claim to be beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are not automatically protected from deportation.”
“DACA does not confer any kind of legal status in this country,” he warned.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that it had detained more than 65,000 immigrants as of November 15. This number represents an increase compared to the period before the US government shutdown, when there were fewer than 60,000 people in detention, according to data from CBS, the BBC’s partner in the US.
Subscribe here Join our new newsletter to receive a selection of our best content of the week every Friday.
And remember, you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and activate it.