Family of White House staffer Karoline Leavitt issue shocking message to relative detained by ICE
Topics: Immigration, News, US News
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Topics: Immigration, News, US News
The family of Karoline Leavitt's nephew's mother have spoken out after Bruna Ferreira was detained by ICE.
In recent days, it was revealed that Ferreira had been detained by ICE and is now at risk of being deported to Brazil.
Ferreira shares a son with Leavitt's brother Michael, 11-year-old Michael Jr. Reportedly, Ferreira and Michael were once engaged but have been broken up for over a decade.
Ferreira has been branded as a 'criminal illegal alien from Brazil' and, as of November 25, was being detained at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center.
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A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told the Daily Beast: "She has a previous arrest for battery. She entered the U.S. on a B2 tourist visa that required her to depart the U.S. by June 6, 1999.
"Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, all individuals unlawfully present in the United States are subject to deportation."
Now Ferreira's family have spoken out and insist that she's been in the US since she was a child.
Her sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, said to The Boston Globe: "She’s been here since she was six years old. She’s more American than she is anything else."
Apparently, Bob Leavitt, Karoline and Michael's father, has reached out to Ferreira. Her sister alleges that she been told to 'self deport'.
"They just kept saying, 'tell her to self-deport,'" she said. "Self-deport to where? Brazil is not her home."
While Bob has apparently reached out, it's believed that White House Press Secretary Karoline has not.
Dos Santgos Rodrigues said: "If she were to help in any way, if she were willing to do anything to help us, she would have reached out by now.
"She has my phone number. We’ve been family for the last 13 years.
"I understand the policies and how it looks. But I also think when it comes to family, you put certain things aside. I don’t care who you work for."
John J. Loscocco is the attorney representing Ferreira and, while the DHS claims that she's been arrested previously, Loscocco insists that the mom has 'no conviction of any kind'.
He is also confused as why Ferreira has been detained as she isn't a flight risk and poses no threat to the wider community.
"This is unusual," Loscocco said of this.
UNILAD has approached the White House's press office for comment on the matter.