The mom of White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew was granted bond from ICE custody as conflicting claims emerge over her immigration and relationship to Leavitt.
Printed On 9 Dec 2025
A Brazilian-born lady with familial ties to White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is being launched from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody as she has contested potential deportation, her lawyer has mentioned.
Bruna Ferreira, a longtime resident of Massachusetts, obtained a $1,500 bond on Monday from an immigration decide at a Louisiana detention centre. Ferreira was arrested by ICE brokers final month whereas driving to choose up her 11-year-old son in New Hampshire. She was beforehand engaged to Leavitt’s brother, Michael.
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Her lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, mentioned in a textual content message that “we argued that she wasn’t a hazard or a flight threat,” and added: “The federal government stipulated to our argument and by no means as soon as argued that she was a legal unlawful alien and waived attraction.”
The White Home has sought to distance Leavitt from the case, saying in a press release that Ferreira had not spoken to the press secretary “in years”. Trump administration officers haven’t supplied proof for his or her claims about Ferreira’s historical past.
Nonetheless, courtroom filings, household pictures, and former reporting point out Ferreira lived together with her son and shared custody with Michael Leavitt. In an interview with The Washington Put up, Ferreira mentioned she had chosen Karoline Leavitt to be her son’s godmother.
The Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) spokesperson mentioned in an e mail that Ferreira is a “legal unlawful alien” who had been detained for battery, an allegation Pomerleau denies. DHS additionally acknowledged that Ferreira entered the US on a B2 vacationer visa that required her to depart the nation in 1999.
“She could have periodic necessary check-ins with ICE legislation enforcement to make sure she is abiding by the phrases of her launch,” the DHS spokesperson added.
A Trump administration official described Ferreira as an absentee dad or mum who “has by no means lived together with her son”. The official mentioned the kid has lived full-time with Michael Leavitt in New Hampshire since beginning.
Ferreira mentioned the White Home’s characterisation of her as somebody who had by no means lived together with her little one is “disgusting” and unfaithful.
In line with the North Andover Eagle-Tribune, Ferreira and Michael Leavitt had been engaged in 2014, when their son Mike Jr was eight months previous.
Pomerleau disputes these accounts, insisting his shopper has shared custody. He mentioned Ferreira got here to the US as a toddler and later enrolled within the Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, which grants safety from deportation to folks dropped at the nation with out authorisation as youngsters. In line with him, the 33-year-old has maintained authorized standing below DACA and is now searching for a inexperienced card.
Efforts by former President Donald Trump to finish DACA throughout his first time period had been blocked by the US Supreme Courtroom.
Karoline Leavitt has declined to touch upon the case. The present press secretary rose to prominence as Donald Trump’s spokeswoman throughout his 2024 marketing campaign and now serves as a key member of the White Home. She has turn into one of many main defenders of the administration’s aggressive crackdown on undocumented immigrants and has publicly supported stricter ICE operations.
