The mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew says she has not been able to see her 11-year-old son since being released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, a case that has pulled the family of a top Trump administration official into the center of the president’s mass deportation campaign.
Bruna Ferreira, a Brazilian-born mother living in Massachusetts, told CNN on Friday that she is “heartbroken” after being separated from her son following her arrest and detention by ICE. Ferreira is the former partner of Leavitt’s brother, who is the child’s father. Ferreira said she has not spoken to the White House press secretary since returning home from a Louisiana detention facility more than 1,000 miles away.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Ferreira said. “I’m trying to understand and have faith that there’s some logical explanation behind any of this, but there isn’t. I’m not the first. I’m surely not going to be the last. There’s thousands of women and families and children being separated daily. Where does it end? When does it stop?”
Ferreira was arrested on November 12 after federal agents surrounded her car while she was driving her son to school, according to her attorneys and surveillance footage from the scene. She was later detained at an ICE facility in Louisiana before an immigration judge ordered her release last week on a $1,500 bond. She is now required to wear a GPS monitor as she continues a legal fight to prevent her removal from the United States.
Despite her release, Ferreira said her son’s father has not brought the boy to see her. She said the separation has been especially painful given the way her case has been publicly characterized.
Following her release, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson again labeled Ferreira a “criminal illegal alien,” saying she would be required to attend mandatory ICE check-ins. The spokesperson added that DHS “will continue to work to remove all aliens illegally present in the country as quickly as possible.”
Ferreira’s attorneys dispute that characterization, noting that she does not appear to have any criminal convictions. She was arrested for being in the country without legal permission after overstaying a visa that expired when she was a child, according to her legal team. Ferreira had previously received protections under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program for immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, and was in the process of obtaining a green card.
“I don’t even have a parking ticket, and I’m so proud of it,” Ferreira said. “I’m proud of my name, and I carry it like a badge of honor. 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.”
Ferreira’s parents emigrated from Brazil in 1998, bringing her with them when she was about 6 years old. Her two younger siblings were born in the United States.
In emotional remarks directed at Leavitt, Ferreira questioned how a fellow mother could remain silent.
“Just because you went to a Catholic school doesn’t make you a good Catholic,” Ferreira said. “You’re a mother. You are a mother now. And you should know. How would you feel if you were in my shoes? How would you feel if somebody did this to you?”
Ferreira also pushed back against White House comments to The Washington Post that CNN anchor Erin Burnett said portrayed her as an absentee parent.
“Why lie?” Ferreira said. “Because I have so many friends and family that have called me and said, ‘Why would anyone lie about this, when it’s 2025, we have a digital footprint of everything.’”
“I can’t wrap my mind around it,” she added. “It doesn’t make any sense. I’m just as lost as you are. And I’m hoping this interview gets us some answers.”
Her attorney, Jeffrey Rubin, said Ferreira’s arrest is part of what he described as a “random and cruel mass deportation campaign” under the Trump administration’s anti-immigration agenda. As Ferreira waits for her next court date, she says her focus remains on one thing: seeing her son again.
