White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s relative detained by ICE
Officials have arrested the mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew as part of the Trump administration’s intensified immigration enforcement efforts, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested the woman in Revere, Massachusetts, this month, the source said.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Bruna Caroline Ferreira was an “illegal and criminal alien from Brazil” who had overstayed her tourist visa, which expired in June 1999.
The woman was arrested on suspicion of assault and battery, the spokesperson said. It is unclear how the case was resolved.
Ferreira, who the source familiar with the matter said never lived with Leavitt’s nephew, is at the ICE South Louisiana processing center in the midst of proceedings seeking his deportation, the DHS spokesperson said.
Under President Donald Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the spokesperson said “all persons illegally present in the United States are subject to deportation.”
The source said Leavitt’s nephew had lived full-time in New Hampshire with his father since birth, had never resided with his mother and had not spoken to her in many years.
The story was first reported by Boston University’s public television station and news platform WBUR. Leavitt declined to comment to WBUR.
Ferreira’s family said in a GoFundMe campaign that she was brought to the United States as a child in 1998 and did “everything in her power to build a stable and honest life here.”
She says she has “maintained her legal status” in the United States by receiving protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which aims to allow immigrants brought to the United States as children, even illegally, to receive protection from deportation.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday that DACA recipients were among those arrested during immigration enforcement.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to the AP on Tuesday that DACA recipients can lose their status “for a number of reasons, including if they have committed a crime.”
