​Mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew released from ICE custody

The mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew was released from her immigration detention center weeks after his detention was announced.

Bruna Caroline Ferreira, who shares a child with Leavitt’s brother, was arrested Nov. 12 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Revere, Massachusetts, while driving to her son’s school, her attorney Todd Pomerleau told reporters last month.

Pomerleau said Tuesday she was released on $1,500 bail, the lowest amount allowed under immigration law. He said in a telephone interview that he had a brief conversation with Ferreira, who told him she was returning to the Northeast from Louisiana.

“We argued forcefully that she did not pose a danger or flight risk, discussed the many forms of relief available to her in obtaining lawful permanent residency, and that DHS’s narrative that she was a ‘criminal illegal alien’ was false in fact and in law because she was never arrested for any crime,” Pomerleau said in a statement released Tuesday.

The statement added that the only time she was arrested was on November 12, which it called an “unconstitutional charade by ICE.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Monday evening that Ferreira was “a criminal illegal alien from Brazil” who had been arrested on battery charges and had entered the United States on a B2 tourist visa that required her to depart by June 6, 1999.

The DHS statement added that a judge authorized his release and payment of bail upon his entry into “removal proceedings.”

Ferreira disputed that characterization in an interview with The Washington Post this week. She said she overstayed her visa as a child, a civil violation, and grew up in the United States.

Ferreira described meeting Leavitt’s brother, Michael, at a nightclub and falling in love. According to the Post, the couple broke off their engagement in 2015 and shared parenting responsibilities for their 11-year-old son. The details of their current co-parenting duties are not immediately clear.

“I asked Karoline to be godmother to my only sister,” Ferreira told the Post. “Why they are creating this narrative is beyond my wildest imagination.”

Ferreira’s sister did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment from NBC News.

In a phone interview with NBC News, Pomerleau said Ferreira had no criminal record and believed the government was referring to a 2008 incident in which Ferreira, then 16, was summoned to juvenile court for an argument outside a Dunkin’ Donuts.

Pomerleau added that the case was dismissed.

“This is a private, non-criminal proceeding under the law, and she was never arrested – she received a summons,” Pomerleau said. “This is wrong in fact and in law.”

Pomerleau also pointed out that he raised these points in his argument during Ferreira’s bail hearing and that the government’s lawyer did not attempt to challenge them.

Juvenile court records are sealed and Ferreira was a minor at the time. The White House and DHS did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment Tuesday.