A United States immigration judge ordered this Monday, the 8th, the release of Bruna Ferreira, a Brazilian who has family ties to the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, from an Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) detention center. Judge Cynthia Goodman granted Bruna freedom on $1,500 bail as she continues to fight possible deportation.
Bruna, 33, a longtime Massachusetts resident, shares custody of an 11-year-old son with her ex-fiance, Michael, Karoline Leavitt’s brother. She was driving to pick up her son in New Hampshire when she was arrested by ICE agents in Revere, Massachusetts, on November 12. Ferreira was later transferred to the detention center in Louisiana where the judge ordered her release on bail.
“We argued that she was not a danger or a flight risk,” Bruna’s attorney, Todd Pomerleau, said in a text message. “The government agreed with our argument and at no point alleged that she was a criminal illegal immigrant, waiving the right to appeal.”
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The Department of Homeland Security had previously classified Ferreira as a “criminal illegal immigrant” and said she had been arrested for assault, an allegation denied by her lawyer.
Neither the department nor the White House press secretary responded to requests for comment from The Associated Press. Previously, the White House had released a statement saying that Bruna had not spoken to Karoline for years and that she had never lived with her son – Bruna denies this version.
Pomerleau said her client came to the U.S. as a child and later signed up for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the Obama-era policy that protects immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. He said she was in the process of applying for a green card.
Karoline Leavitt grew up in New Hampshire and ran unsuccessfully for the state’s congressional seat in 2022 before becoming Trump’s spokeswoman for his 2024 campaign and later joining him in the White House.
*With information from Associated Press.
*This content was translated with the help of Artificial Intelligence tools and reviewed by the editorial team of Estadão.
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