The story of her November 12 arrest and detention is deeply familiar to hundreds of immigrant families embroiled in legal battles and deportation threats under Donald Trump\u2019s administration, but new reporting from Ferreira\u2019s case has revealed her ties to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, whose brother is the father of Ferreira\u2019s child.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an irony here,\u201d said attorney Jeffrey Rubin, whose firm is representing Ferreira.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s somebody that has generated publicity because of her relationship to somebody who is part of the inner circle of the White House, but at the end of the day, that she\u2019s just one of many thousands and thousands of people that are getting this treatment on a daily basis in this administration,\u201d he told The Independent.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Bruna Ferreira, 33, is the mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt\u2019s nephew. She was arrested by federal agents and remains in ICE custody as the Trump administration threatens to remove her from the country (GoFundMe\/Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues)<\/p>\n Ferreira\u2019s parents emigrated from Brazil and brought their young daughter with them in 1998 when she was roughly 6 years old. Her two younger siblings were born in the United States.<\/p>\n She received temporary legal protections under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, the Obama-era program that has shielded tens of thousands of people who arrived in the country as children without legal status, and she was in the process of obtaining a green card, according to her legal team.<\/p>\n That would place Ferreira among more than 20 DACA recipients and dozens of young immigrants who have been arrested or detained by immigration authorities since January, according to advocacy campaign Home Is Here.<\/a><\/p>\n Her arrest is among many in a \u201crandom and cruel mass deportation campaign\u201d under an administration that has performed warrantless searches, arrested and deported immigrants without due process, and stripped legal protections for tens of thousands of people who were allowed to live and work in the country, according to Rubin.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s outrageous and abhorrent, and the rhetoric alone is disgusting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s government-wide anti-immigration agenda<\/a> has sought to dramatically reshape DACA, which Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin recently stressed \u201cdoes not confer any form of legal status in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n DACA is not necessarily a path to permanent legal status, and new applications have been suspended for nearly a decade since the first Trump administration unsuccessfully sought to end the program altogether.<\/p>\n But there is \u201ca strong bipartisan consensus that people like her should have a path to stay,\u201d according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick<\/a>, a senior fellow with immigration advocacy and policy group the American Immigration Council.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Leavitt\u2019s brother Michael was previously engaged to Ferreira, who emigrated to the United States from Brazil when she was six years old. The Trump administration has labeled her a \u2018criminal illegal alien\u2019 (REUTERS)<\/p>\n Ferreira was previously engaged to Michael Leavitt, the brother of Karoline Leavitt, but they broke up more than 10 years ago, according to the family. Ferreira and Leavitt share custody of their son, who lives with Michael and his wife in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n When Michael won $1 million from a DraftKings contest eight months after their son was born, Ferreira said the couple was not in want of anything.<\/p>\n \u201cI need the lights fixed on the back of my car,\u201d she told The Cullman Times<\/a> in 2014. \u201cAnd we need a lamp for my son\u2019s room. Other than that we don\u2019t really need much. We have our health. We have a nice condo. We really are blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n They separated shortly after.<\/p>\n Her younger sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, launched a GoFundMe<\/a> to raise money for her legal defense. \u201cAnyone who knows Bruna knows the kind of person she is,\u201d Dos Santos Rodrigues wrote. \u201cShe is hardworking, kind, and always the first to offer help when someone needs it. Whether it\u2019s supporting family, friends, or even strangers, Bruna has a heart that puts others before herself.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Bruna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/96774093_1763693437818024_r-(1).jpeg\")
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