New York.- The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) detained a woman who has a family connection to the White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, local media reports this Wednesday.
This is Bruna Caroline Ferreira, the mother of Leavitt’s nephew and originally from Brazil, who resided in the country despite her tourist visa expiring in June 1999, according to NBC News, which cites a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Since he was born, Leavitt’s nephew has lived in New Hampshire solely with his father, and his mother has not been in contact with Leavitt for many years, according to CNN.
This same source indicated that Ferreira was arrested in Revere (Massachusetts) by immigration authorities, on suspicion of having committed an assault, although it did not give further details in this regard.
Currently, the woman remains detained in an immigration detention center in Louisiana, pending deportation.
Her sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, created a GoFundMe campaign to cover legal expenses and in it states that Ferreira arrived in the U.S. in 1998 and maintained her legal status thanks to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The DACA, created in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama (2009-2017), postponed the deportation of undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as minors.
For his part, Ferreira’s lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, denied that his client has a criminal record and also assured that the detainee was arrested in her vehicle without a warrant and that she was in the process of obtaining her permanent residency.
