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Bruna Ferreira was driving to pick up her 11-year-old son from school earlier this month when she was suddenly surrounded by federal officers.
Since then, the 33-year-old Brazilian mother has been detained inside a Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana, hundreds of miles from her home in Massachusetts.
The story of his arrest and detention on Nov. 12 is deeply familiar to hundreds of immigrant families embroiled in legal battles and deportation threats under Donald Trump’s administration, but new reporting on Ferreira’s case has revealed their connections White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt, whose brother is the father of Ferreira’s child.
“There’s an irony here,” said attorney Jeffrey Rubin, whose firm is representing Ferreira.
“She is someone who has garnered publicity because of her relationship with someone who was part of the White House’s inner circle, but ultimately, she is one of thousands of people who are getting this treatment on a daily basis in this administration,” he said. Independent.
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Ferreira’s parents immigrated from Brazil and brought their younger daughter with them in 1998, when she was about 6 years old. His two younger siblings were born in the United States.
She received temporary legal protection under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, an Obama-era program that has rescued thousands of people who came to the country as children without legal status, and she was in the process of getting a green card, according to her legal team.
That would put Ferreira among more than 20 DACA recipients and dozens of young immigrants who have been arrested or detained by immigration authorities since January, according to the advocacy campaign. Home is here.
According to Rubin, his arrest is one of many in a “random and brutal mass deportation campaign” under an administration that has conducted warrantless searches, arrested and deported immigrants without due process, and stripped legal protections for thousands of people who were allowed to live and work in the country.
“It’s outrageous and disgusting, and the rhetoric alone is disgusting,” he said.
Trump’s The government’s comprehensive anti-immigration agenda There have been calls to dramatically reshape DACA, which Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin recently stressed “does not provide any kind of legal status in this country.”
DACA is not necessarily a path to permanent legal status, and new applications have been suspended for nearly a decade since the Trump administration first tried unsuccessfully to end the program entirely.
But “there is a strong bipartisan consensus that people like him should have a way to live,” according to Aaron Reichlin MelnikA senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, an immigration advocacy and policy group.
Ferreira was previously engaged to Michael Levitt, Caroline Levitt’s brother, but they broke up more than 10 years ago, according to family. Ferreira and Levitt share custody of their son, who lives with Michael and his wife in New Hampshire.
When Michael won $1 million in a DraftKings contest eight months after the birth of their son, Ferreira said the couple was not missing anything.
“I need to get lights installed on the back of my car,” he said The Cullman Times in 2014. “And we need a lamp for our son’s room. Other than that we don’t really need much. Our health is good. We have a nice condo. We’re really blessed.”
They separated shortly afterwards.
His younger sister, Graziella dos Santos Rodrigues, Launched a GoFundMe To raise funds for his legal defense. Dos Santos Rodrigues wrote, “Anyone who knows Bruna knows what kind of person she is.” “She is hard-working, kind and is always the first to help when someone needs help. Whether it’s supporting family, friends or even strangers, Bruna has a heart that puts others before herself.”
He told boston globe Michael Levitt and his father Bob Levitt had urged Ferreira to “self-deport” after his arrest.
“Brazil is not his home,” dos Santos Rodrigues said. “They’re trying to pass it off as a holiday. It’s not a holiday. Bruna barely speaks the language.”
Carolyn Leavitt, who posted several photos with her nephew on social media, has not had contact with dos Santos Rodriguez or his family, he said.
According to photos shared by Levits on social media, his nephew also met Trump inside the White House earlier this year.
“If she had wanted to help in any way, if she had been willing to do anything to help us, she would have arrived by now,” dos Santos Rodrigues said. boston globe“I understand the policies and what it looks like, But I also think that when it comes to family, you put some things aside, I don’t care who you work for,”
In a message to reporters, Michael Levitt said, “My only concern has always been my son’s safety, well-being and privacy.”
Meanwhile, Homeland Security has described the mother of Carolyn Leavitt’s nephew as a “criminal illegal alien” who has been charged with assault. His lawyers said they “found nothing” to support those allegations.
Authorities also accused Ferreira of overstaying a tourist visa, which caused her to leave the country in 1999, when she was seven years old. “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, all individuals present in the United States unlawfully are subject to deportation,” a Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.
“This is all just rhetoric and turning the law on its head,” Rubin said. Independent.
Ferreira’s legal team is requesting a bond hearing in immigration court to secure his release from ICE custody.
This week, a federal judge in California struck down a Trump administration policy that had barred most immigrants who entered the country without legal permission from being detained during their removal proceedings.
The decision could potentially allow thousands of immigrants who have been detained during their removal cases to be released.
Independent The White House has been requested to comment.