Mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew tells of ‘no civilization’ in ICE detention

Bruna Ferreira, the mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew, spent 26 days in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center. Six days after her release, Ferreira spoke to MS NOW’s Antonia Hylton about the experience.

“I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it with my own two eyes, if I didn’t hear it with my own two ears,” she said. “It’s not civil.”

While being held at an ICE detention center in southern Louisiana, she shared the space with pregnant women and women who had been seeking medical attention for weeks, Ferreira said. “The only thing that I can think of is I’m so lucky that I’m healthy,” she said. 

Inside, the detention center was freezing, and she and other detainees were only allowed outside for brief periods. “It’s just inhumane. It’s cruel. I can’t understand how people don’t see that this is a problem, especially because I’ve been a law-abiding citizen my entire life,” Ferreira said.

The 33-year-old was arrested by federal agents in Massachusetts on Nov. 12 while driving to pick up her son from school. 

Ferreira’s attorney, Todd Pomerleau, told MS NOW that she was barricaded by masked and armed agents in five vehicles who surrounded her car and repeatedly asked, “Are you Bruna?”

 Ferreira said that at first she didn’t believe the Leavitt family was involved in her arrest. Now she’s not so sure.

Ferreira said that at first she didn’t believe the Leavitt family was involved in her arrest. Now she’s not so sure. “It wasn’t an accident. How would they know her name, if it’s a random traffic stop?” Pomerleau said.

“The more that I look at all of the coincidences, you know, like how they knew that I was leaving to pick up Michael from school, how they knew my address,” Ferreira told Hylton, “how can someone know where I am, exactly where I’m going? You know, it just doesn’t make any sense.” 

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson called Ferreira “a criminal illegal alien” in a statement to MS NOW last Tuesday, adding that in 1999 she overstayed a tourist visa that required her to leave the U.S. 

The statement claimed that a “Biden-appointed judge” granted Ferreira bond and that her deportation proceedings will continue, adding, “She will have periodic mandatory check-ins with ICE law enforcement to ensure she is abiding by the terms of her release.”

Ferreira told MS NOW that she came into the country legally on a visa from Brazil at just 6 years old to live with her parents. In 2012, she received temporary Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status under the program enacted during the Obama administration that allows undocumented young people to receive temporary relief from deportation and to work. Since then, Ferreira said she has been working toward obtaining full legal citizenship. 

DHS also alleged that in addition to violating immigration laws, Ferreira had a “previous arrest for battery.”

Pomerleau told MS NOW that the department is referring to an incident when 16-year-old Ferreira got into a fight with another girl outside a Dunkin’ Donuts. She received a summons to juvenile court over the incident, but the case was dismissed and she was never arrested. 

In Massachusetts, such cases are protected by privacy laws and include confidential proceedings, Pomerleau said. He told MS NOW that he believes the incident must have been leaked to DHS, as the records are not accessible to the public. “As a lawyer, I can’t even access these records,” Pomerleau said.

“They’re claiming she’s a criminal, yet she’s never been arrested for anything other than this illegal, unconstitutional arrest on November the 12th,” Pomerleau said. 

Ferreira said that she still doesn’t feel free since her release from the nearly monthlong detention, telling MS NOW that “even when I’m back at home and I’m sleeping, I still feel like, you know, it’s not real, that I’m still in there.” 

“It’s exhausting,” she added.

Ferreira said that she believes the American immigration system is impossible even for those who seek to follow its guidelines as precisely as possible. 

“The system is broken. You know, if they ask you to do something, you do it; and then if you don’t, you know — you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. It’s very hard to understand what they want from you,” Ferreira said.

Ferreira said she still has not seen her 11-year-old son. She shares custody of the boy with his father, Michael Leavitt, who is her ex-fiancé and the press secretary’s brother. “I have been able to FaceTime him, but I have not been able to do what I had envisioned, which was go and surprise him and give him a hug,” Ferreira said.