Brace yourself for a story that blends family ties with the thorny issue of immigration enforcement.
WCVB reported that Bruna Ferreira, a woman connected to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt through a family link, was recently apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Revere, Massachusetts, and now finds herself detained in a facility far from home.
This saga began years ago, when Ferreira, originally from Brazil, arrived in the United States as a child on a B-2 tourist visa, which required her departure by mid-1999.
Despite the visa’s expiration, Ferreira remained in the country and later gained protections under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, a policy often criticized by conservatives for sidestepping congressional authority.
She built a life here, including having an 11-year-old son with Michael Leavitt, the brother of Karoline Leavitt, though the child has always lived full-time with his father in New Hampshire.
Ferreira maintained a relationship with her son, but that connection has been severed since her arrest by ICE several weeks ago, leaving questions about the emotional toll on a young boy right before the holidays.
Now detained at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, Ferreira is in the midst of removal proceedings, a process that underscores the hardline stance on immigration enforcement under current leadership.
Her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, argues she’s on the path to legal residency and paints a picture of unjust disruption. “She’s in the process of actually getting her residency, and she was abruptly arrested and taken from her young child right before Thanksgiving,” Pomerleau said.
But let’s not get too misty-eyed—while Pomerleau’s plea tugs at heartstrings, the reality of overstaying a visa by decades isn’t a trivial oversight, and enforcement isn’t personal; it’s policy.
The Department of Homeland Security, however, offers a starkly different view, labeling Ferreira as someone with a past arrest for battery. “ICE arrested Bruna Caroline Ferreira, a criminal illegal alien from Brazil. She has a previous arrest for battery,” a DHS spokesperson stated.
They further noted her long-expired visa and current detention status, emphasizing that no one unlawfully present gets a free pass. That’s a clear signal of zero tolerance, though the battery claim remains murky without public evidence.
Pomerleau pushes back hard against this narrative, insisting there’s no criminal record to speak of. “Bruna has no criminal record whatsoever. I don’t know where that is coming from,” he countered.
Meanwhile, Michael Leavitt, the father of Ferreira’s son, keeps his focus narrow, prioritizing his child over public drama. “My only concern has always been the safety, well-being, and privacy of [my] son,” he stated.
That’s a fair stance—who wouldn’t shield their kid from this mess?—but it sidesteps the broader clash of immigration law and family separation that’s playing out.
As for Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary with a direct family connection to this case, she’s stayed mum, declining to comment despite her high-profile role, and sources confirm she hasn’t spoken to Ferreira in years.
While some might cry nepotism or favoritism, her silence aligns with a professional boundary on a personal matter, though it won’t quiet the chatter about optics. Let’s be real: in a hyper-political climate, even distant ties can spark accusations of bias, but there’s no evidence here of interference or special treatment.