Bruna Caroline Ferreira says she left her Massachusetts home in a rush, shoelaces untied, and was driving to pick up her 11-year-old son from school when unmarked vehicles moved in and immigration agents approached her.
Ferreira, 33, is the mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew, and she has said Leavitt is also her son’s godmother.
As of Sunday, Dec. 14, it has been 32 days since her Nov. 12 arrest, and Ferreira says she still has not seen her child since the detention began.
Ferreira told WMUR the moment she was stopped felt sudden and overwhelming. “A swarm of people,” she said, describing how she was taken to the Revere Police Department to verify her identity.
Her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, has said she was approached by someone who already knew her name.
Ferreira has said she began calling emergency contacts while being processed, trying to make sure someone could pick her son up from school.
She has described a panic that set in fast once she realised she could not guarantee he would be collected on time.
Ferreira shares her son with Michael Leavitt, Karoline Leavitt’s brother, and the family connection is the reason this case has been followed so closely outside Massachusetts.
WBUR, via NHPR, has reported that Ferreira and Michael Leavitt have had a “contentious custody battle” over their son, and that the Leavitts have insisted they were not involved in her arrest.
26 days in custody, and transfers across states
Ferreira has said she spent 26 days in immigration custody and was moved through multiple detention locations before ending up in Louisiana.
“It’s mindboggling,” she told WMUR, describing the experience of being transferred without clear answers about where she was being taken.
TIME reported that Ferreira described transfers from Massachusetts to New Hampshire, then Vermont, then Philadelphia, then Texas, before she was taken to the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center.
TIME also reported she described seeing a Mexico sign during one transfer and pleading for clarity, then being told she was being taken to her final destination.
The South Louisiana ICE Processing Center is in Basile, Louisiana, more than 1,500 miles from where she was arrested near Boston, as multiple outlets have noted while tracking the case.
The judge’s order and the bond amount
An immigration judge ordered Ferreira’s release from ICE custody while her case continues, according to the Associated Press.
Her bond was set at $1,500, and multiple reports described it as the minimum amount permitted by law.
In court, her legal team argued she is not a danger and not a flight risk, and AP reported the government did not contest that argument and waived an appeal.
A DHS spokesperson has said Ferreira will have periodic mandatory check-ins with ICE as part of her release conditions.
DHS’s claims, and the dispute over her background
DHS has described Ferreira as a “criminal illegal alien,” and has said she overstayed a B-2 tourist visa that required her to depart by June 6, 1999.
DHS has also said she had a prior arrest for battery, a claim her attorney disputes.
Pomerleau has pushed back hard on that characterisation, telling WMUR, “Show us the proof.”
NHPR’s report, republishing WBUR, said WBUR located a police report from Melrose involving Ferreira when she was 16, described as a fight “over $8,” and her lawyer argued that a misdemeanor would not automatically disqualify someone from DACA or a green card.
That same WBUR report, via NHPR, said Ferreira came to the U.S. at age 6 from Brazil, and that her family said her father was deported when she was a teenager.
What she says about her son, and why she still has not seen him
Ferreira has said she has not been able to see her son since the detention began, and that even after returning to Massachusetts, she still has not been reunited with him.
She told PEOPLE she is heartbroken by the public framing of her case, and said, “I’m heartbroken for my son.”
Ferreira has said she is wearing a GPS monitor, and she has blamed the continued separation on the child’s father not bringing him to see her.
Her message to Leavitt, and the White House response
In her TV interview, Ferreira aimed her sharpest words at Karoline Leavitt, who she says is her son’s godmother.
“Just because you went to a Catholic school doesn’t make you a good Catholic,” Ferreira said.
WMUR reported that when they asked Leavitt about the situation on Friday, she said she does not have a comment.
What comes next in court
Ferreira’s immigration case is expected to continue in Boston immigration court, and she remains under supervision conditions tied to her release, including ICE check-ins described by DHS.