The mother of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew was detained by federal immigration officials in Massachusetts as she was on her way to pick her son up from school on Nov. 12, according to the detainee’s lawyer.
Bruna Caroline Ferreira, who arrived from Brazil as a young child in 1998 with her parents, was taken into custody in Revere, Mass., and is accused by the Department of Homeland Security of overstaying her tourist visa.
Ferreira, 33, shares an 11-year-old son with Leavitt’s older brother, Michael, and the two share joint custody of the child, Ferreira’s attorney, Todd Pomerleau told USA TODAY. The couple was engaged about 12 years ago -and eventually broke up.
A DHS spokesperson described Ferreira as a "criminal illegal alien" with a "previous arrest for battery" without providing details.
Pomerleau said Ferreira, who is being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana, was in the final stages of getting her green card, with the last interview scheduled for the spring.
