A video circulating online shows the moment that a woman from Brazil — whose son is White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew — is suddenly stopped and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Massachusetts.
The harrowing footage of Bruna Caroline Ferreira’s arrest, obtained by TMZ, has been described as “unconstitutional depravity” by her attorney.
Ferreira, a native of Brazil, is filmed driving in a car as she leaves her residence in Revere, Massachusetts around 12:30 pm on November 12.
A group of five unmarked vehicle impede her path, forcing her to stop. ICE agents then spill out of their cars and approach Ferreira’s vehicle before demanding she exit it. She is then put in handcuffs and loaded into an agent’s SUV.
The Department of Homeland Security said Ferreira entered the U.S. on a B2 tourist visa requiring her to leave by June 6, 1999.
The same spokesperson told the outlet that the woman was a “criminal illegal alien from Brazil” and allegedly had been arrested on battery charges.
She is currently being held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center and is awaiting deportation.
According to TMZ, Leavitt’s nephew — Ferreira’s son — lives in New Hampshire with his father, Michael Leavitt. The White House mouthpiece has reportedly not spoken to Ferreira in years, the outlet reported.
An attorney representing Ferreira, Todd Pomerleau, told TMZ he saw the video of his client’s arrest and described it as “unconstitutional depravity.”
“This is targeted, unconstitutional depravity. A single mother who owns two businesses and was merely awaiting her green card — like tens of thousands of others — now sits in a for-profit prison in Louisiana stripped from her child right before the holidays,” Todd Pomerleau, an attorney representing Ferriera, told TMZ.
Jeffrey Rubin, another attorney representing Ferreira, told WBZ News that she was a member of the DACA dreamer program.
“This same government who protected her and afforded her a path to citizenship has chosen to instead abuse its entrusted powers and embark on a cruel and inhumane random mass deportation that now ensnares a relative of someone in the inner circle of the White House,” he wrote in a statement.
Pomerleau said that Ferreira arrived in the U.S. when she was 6-years-old, and that she and Karoline Leavitt’s brother, Michael, had once been engaged to be married and had a child together before the end of their relationship.
When asked about his former partner, Michael Leavitt told WBZ News that he was solely focused on his son.
“My only concern has always been the safety, well being, and privacy of my son,” he said.
Pomerleau also told TMZ that there was no bad blood between Leavitt’s family and Ferreira’s.
“Bruna had no problem whatsoever with the Leavitt family. Karoline is her son’s godmother, chosen over her own sister, and Michael Sr. is a very good father,” he said. “Bruna was en route to pick up her son Michael Jr. after school like she did several days a week. He lived with her till kindergarten, but now awaits for his mother’s warm embrace.”
