The mother of Karoline Leavitt's nephew in ICE custody

Karoline Leavitt has been at the center of the political stage for months, but now an event beyond her control has created a direct connection to her own environment. The mother of her eleven-year-old nephew, Bruna Ferreira, was arrested by ICE officers in Revere, Massachusetts. A raid that has become routine under the Trump administration and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, but rarely does it reach this deep into the personal circle of a White House press secretary.

Ferreira is being held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, thousands of miles from her son, while authorities evaluate whether she will be deported to Brazil. According to the Department of Homeland Security, she allegedly entered the country with a tourist visa that expired in 1999. The agency also cites an old arrest on suspicion of battery, without explaining the course or outcome of the case. Family members, however, paint a different picture. A fundraising campaign claims Ferreira was brought to the United States as a child in 1998 and later obtained protection status under the DACA program. She built a quiet life, worked, paid taxes, and tried to provide her son with a stable foundation.

The boy, Michael Leavitt Junior, has lived with his father in New Hampshire since birth and had not been in contact with his mother for some time. There was no shared home between him and Ferreira - a point the family emphasizes to make clear that the case has no direct connection to the press secretary herself and that supportive help is therefore being withheld. But that is not the full story. Leavitt and Ferreira lived together until their separation, a point that is now being deliberately denied. Bruna Ferreira was formerly engaged to Michael Leavitt, the press secretary’s brother. The son had contact with his mother and spent a large part of his school vacations with her. The same applied to a weekend arrangement, as the distance between Bruna Ferreira and Michael Leavitt is only about 90 minutes by car. For several months now, however, this has been blocked. And yet the political shadow remains. A White House spokesperson who defends the administration’s hard line every day is now seeing how the same measures strike someone who was once part of her family and always will be. Michael Leavitt Junior.

That Ferreira is now sitting in a facility in Louisiana, far from the place of her arrest, has hit the family hard. Her sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, is trying with all her strength to prevent the looming deportation. She has launched a fundraising campaign to pay for legal assistance and to bring Bruna back to Boston. More than 14,000 dollars have already been raised, with a goal of 30,000. The case is particularly explosive and could become a second Kilmar Garcia.

April 27, 2025 in the Oval Office - The family of Michael Leavitt, including Michael Leavitt Jr. and his now-wife, Kara Leavitt, whom he married in June 2022.

It is also striking what is missing in this case: the files. Neither in the responsible court register nor in publicly accessible databases is there any verifiable trace of the violence accusation mentioned by the authorities. This feels very familiar. The government portrays Ferreira as a "criminal illegal immigrant", but so far provides no documented basis on which this classification can be verified. A lawyer has now been secured, but everything already points to a hard, long fight. According to our current information, the case will land before Judge Sherron Ashworth - one of the strictest judges in the entire immigration system, known for one of the highest denial rates in the United States.

While the White House declines to comment and the press secretary herself remains silent, the case shows how arbitrary and unpredictable the current deportation policy can be. Open questions remain: Why was a woman who has lived in the country for decades suddenly arrested “abruptly”? Why is her DACA status being questioned? And what does it mean for thousands of others in the same situation when even those under the public eye have no clarity about their rights?

The case of Bruna Ferreira therefore shows unvarnished what many people have experienced in recent months under ICE operations - including individuals who had protected status for years. The department's statement that anyone without lawful presence in the United States can be deported shows how broadly the administration defines its approach. For Ferreira’s family, there is now only the hope that legal steps and public pressure will prevent a woman who has spent nearly her entire life in the United States from being sent back to a country she has not known since childhood. A second hearing has been secured and we are now working on this case. And for Karoline Leavitt, a dilemma arises that she cannot resolve with any statement, or more precisely, does not want to resolve. The policies she defends and supports every day are now affecting someone far closer to her private life than she would prefer.