On April 1, 2025, in Washington, DC, at the White House, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing.Andrew Thomas/NurPhoto/AP
In an exclusive interview with The Washington Post, Bruna Ferreira, the mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew, who has been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement since November 12, details her arrest, her long relationship with the Leavitts, and how the White House, in her own words, is spreading “disgusting” lies about her.
“I asked Karoline to be godmother over my only sister,” she said Thursday in a video interview from a remote detention center in Louisiana. “I made a mistake there, in trusting….Why they’re creating this narrative is beyond my wildest imagination.”
Since being picked up by ICE, the White House has painted Ferreira as a criminal and an absentee mom who hadn’t spoken to Leavitt in years. According to the Post, “Court records, family photos and Ferreira’s account tell a different story.”
Ferreira, born in Brazil, is facing possible removal after living in the United States for most of her life. She’s also a part of the cohort who received protection through the 2012 program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and is now being targeted for deportation. Her case has gained national attention because of her connection to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who remains a staunch supporter—and mouthpiece—for President Donald Trump and his administration’s ongoing mass-deportation campaign across the country.
Ferreira’s arrest has raised the question of if there was personal involvement from the Leavitt family in ICE’s actions, a claim that Michael Leavitt, Karoline’s brother, has denied. “I had no involvement in her being picked up by ice,” he wrote Wednesday to the Post. “I have no control over that and had no involvement in that whatsoever.”
In their exclusive reporting, the Post’s Maria Sacchetti and Todd Wallack piece together more than 11 years, from Ferreira and Leavitt’s relationship to their separation to contentious co-parenting, all the way to Karoline coming to the White House.
According to Ferreira, Michael and his father, Bob Leavitt, have in recent weeks told her sister that Ferreira should “self deport”—a common refrain from the White House to scores of immigrants across the country. Yet, if she did that, under federal law, Ferreira would be barred from coming back to the United States for a decade.
Her lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, has advised against that idea: “It’s a trap.”
Read the full report here.
