What to Know
The mother of White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt’s nephew has been detained by ICE for allegedly overstaying her visa by 26 years.
Bruna Ferreira, 33, who has a child with Leavitt’s brother, Michael Leavitt, was detained during a traffic stop earlier this month while on her way to pick up her son from school in New Hampshire, the Boston Globe reported.
According to Ferreira’s sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, Ferreira kept telling immigration authorities the name of her son’s aunt: Karoline Leavitt.
As White House spokeswoman, Leavitt has defended President Donald Trump’s immigration policies from the podium when she briefs reporters.
Dos Santos Rodrigues said her sister was unable to get in touch with Karoline Leavitt, but her son’s father and grandfather told her to leave the country.
Ferreira and Michael Leavitt broke up more than a decade ago, according to Dos Santos Rodrigues, and share custody of their son, Michael Leavitt, Jr.
She said her sister was brought from Brazil to the United States with their parents in 1998.
“They just kept saying, ‘Tell her to self-deport,’” Dos Santos Rodriguez told the Globe. “Self-deport to where? Brazil is not her home.”
According to Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, Ferreira “has a previous arrest for battery” and that she entered the country on a B-2 tourist visa that required her to leave by June 6, 1999.
Ferreira is currently in removal proceedings in Louisiana, she said, according to the Globe.
Trump administration critics took to social media to point out the “irony” and hypocrisy” of an ICE detention with a connection to Karoline Leavitt.
“This has gotta be one of the most ironic things you’ll ever hear,” liberal influencer Brian Krassenstein said in a video explaining the situation to his nearly 960,000 followers on X.
“Karoline Leavitt should be ashamed of herself,” Krassenstein tweeted.
“So while Karoline sells ‘law and order’ from the podium, her own family is being shredded by the machine she defends,” tweeted Irene C. Reynolds. “Hypocrisy doesn’t just knock — it kicks down the door. Ok Karoline — step up to the mic and walk us all through this.”
“Oh to be a fly on the wall around THAT Thanksgiving dinner table…,“ tweeted David Meuse, a representative in the New Hampshire State Legislature.
Hector Samuels added, “Karma’s timing is impeccable. Will Karoline still say ‘no exceptions’ when it’s family?”
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Howard Koplowitz
al.com
(TNS)
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