Woman linked to Trump's press secretary who was arrested by ICE breaks silence
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: CNN / Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News
A woman arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a Donald Trump-authorised raid last month - who was later linked to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt - has spoken out.
Bruna Caroline Ferreira travelled to the US from Brazil in 1998, at just six years old. In the years that followed, she'd been protected under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy.
She was in the process of obtaining a green card when she was detailed by the federal agency and held for deportation last month. The 33-year-old had been collecting her son from school in Revere, Massachusetts, on 12 November at the time.
The move came just under a year since Republican front-man Trump, 79, set up a goal for ICE to make at least 3,000 immigrant arrests per day, as part of a plan for the 'biggest deportation operation' in US history.
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Weeks after Ferreira's arrest, it emerged that she was the wife of Karoline Leavitt's brother, Michael Leavitt, and the mother to the press sec's nephew, 11. Though the couple were no longer together, they co-parented the child amicably, sources say.
She was later released under judge's orders by the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center.
As we say, however, Ferreira has now issued a brutal statement on her hellish encounter with ICE, firing a series of shots at her former sister-in-law.
Speaking to CNN alongside her attorney Todd Pomerleau, she began of her decision to make Leavitt her son's godmother, 'over' her own sister: "I think what I would have to say to Karoline is: Just because you went to a Catholic school doesn't make you a good Catholic."
Referencing the press sec's one-year-old son Niko, Ferreira added: "You are a mother now. How would you feel if you were in those, in my shoes?
"How would you feel if somebody did this to you?"
Also during the interview, she recalled her 'mind-boggling' public arrest, which she equated to being 'shuffled around the entire country', with ICE agents refusing to disclose the reason for her specific arrest.
After confirming Ferreira's arrest to the media, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson claimed that her tourist visa had expired in 1999, and that she had a 'previous arrest for battery'.
In response, the doting mother described herself as a 'law-abiding citizen', adding: "I'm heartbroken. I'm heartbroken for my son.
"You know, I'm heartbroken for my mother, who has worked for a quarter of a century cleaning houses, earned an honest living, has paid her taxes."
She went on to insist: "I don't even have a parking ticket. And I'm so proud of it."
Ferreira continued of her South American heritage: "I'm proud of my name and I carry it like a badge of honour, you know, like being on an honour roll,” she continued. “And now my child is sitting somewhere watching them broadcast this 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"As a child, he must be terrified: ‘Is it true? Did my mom do something? Do I not know about it?’ Gossip in school - I don't know what's going on in his little mind, and I just want him to know that none of those things are true, honey. And we're to square this all away."
Of her time in detainment, Ferreira claimed it gave her a 'lot of time to think'.
"You really think the worst," she recalled. "You think the worst. But the luck that I had is that I was surrounded by so many women, so many women that had four children. One was pregnant - I can't imagine. I just tried to put myself in their shoes."
Of the fact that she had an attorney while others did not, she continued: "I can't fathom a mother not knowing where her son is for a year and a half, and who's with him, what he's eating, if he's going to bed on time, if he's sick.
"I can't imagine. It's cruel."
Though the White House hasn't yet issued an official comment on Ferreira's case, a source reportedly told PEOPLE magazine that she hasn't spoken to Leavitt 'in many years', since she and ex-fiancé Michael split.