Karoline Leavitt’s relative is newest DACA goal in Trump’s ‘random and cruel mass deportation campaign,’ lawyer says | EUROtoday

Bruna Ferreira was driving to choose up her 11-year-old son from faculty earlier this month when she was immediately surrounded by federal officers.

Since then, the 33-year-old Brazilian mom has been detained inside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana, lots of of miles from her dwelling in Massachusetts.

The story of her November 12 arrest and detention is deeply acquainted to lots of of immigrant households embroiled in authorized battles and deportation threats below Donald Trump’s administration, however new reporting from Ferreira’s case has revealed her ties to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, whose brother is the daddy of Ferreira’s youngster.

“There’s an irony here,” mentioned lawyer Jeffrey Rubin, whose agency is representing Ferreira.

“She’s 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’s just one of many thousands and thousands of people that are getting this treatment on a daily basis in this administration,” he advised The Independent.

Ferreira’s dad and mom emigrated from Brazil and introduced their younger daughter with them in 1998 when she was roughly 6 years previous. Her two youthful siblings had been born within the United States.

She acquired non permanent authorized protections below Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, the Obama-era program that has shielded tens of 1000’s of people that arrived within the nation as youngsters with out authorized standing, and he or she was within the strategy of acquiring a inexperienced card, in line with her authorized group.

That would place Ferreira amongst greater than 20 DACA recipients and dozens of younger immigrants who’ve been arrested or detained by immigration authorities since January, in line with advocacy marketing campaign Home Is Here.

Her arrest is amongst many in a “random and cruel mass deportation campaign” below an administration that has carried out warrantless searches, arrested and deported immigrants with out due course of, and stripped authorized protections for tens of 1000’s of people that had been allowed to stay and work within the nation, in line with Rubin.

“It’s outrageous and abhorrent, and the rhetoric alone is disgusting,” he mentioned.

Trump’s government-wide anti-immigration agenda has sought to dramatically reshape DACA, which Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin not too long ago harassed “does not confer any form of legal status in this country.”

DACA is just not essentially a path to everlasting authorized standing, and new purposes have been suspended for practically a decade for the reason that first Trump administration unsuccessfully sought to finish this system altogether.

But there’s “a strong bipartisan consensus that people like her should have a path to stay,” in line with Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with immigration advocacy and coverage group the American Immigration Council.

Ferreira was beforehand engaged to Michael Leavitt, the brother of Karoline Leavitt, however they broke up greater than 10 years in the past, in line with the household. Ferreira and Leavitt share custody of their son, who lives with Michael and his spouse in New Hampshire.

When Michael received $1 million from a DraftKings contest eight months after their son was born, Ferreira mentioned the couple was not in need of something.

“I need the lights fixed on the back of my car,” she advised The Cullman Times in 2014. “And we need a lamp for my son’s room. Other than that we don’t really need much. We have our health. We have a nice condo. We really are blessed.”

They separated shortly after.

Her youthful sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, launched a GoFundMe to lift cash for her authorized protection. “Anyone who knows Bruna knows the kind of person she is,” Dos Santos Rodrigues wrote. “She is hardworking, kind, and always the first to offer help when someone needs it. Whether it’s supporting family, friends, or even strangers, Bruna has a heart that puts others before herself.”

She advised the Boston Globe that Michael Leavitt and his father, Bob Leavitt, had urged Ferreira to “self-deport” after her arrest.

“Brazil is not her home,” Dos Santos Rodrigues mentioned. “They’re trying to push it off as a vacation. That’s not a vacation. Bruna barely speaks the language.”

Karoline Leavitt, who has posted a number of pictures together with her nephew on social media, has not reached out to Dos Santos Rodrigues or her household, she mentioned.

Her nephew additionally met Trump earlier this yr contained in the White House, in line with images shared by the Leavitts on social media.

“If she were to help in any way, if she were willing to do anything to help us, she would have reached out by now,” Dos Santos Rodrigues advised the Boston Globe. “I understand the policies and how it looks. But I also think when it comes to family, you put certain things aside. I don’t care who you work for.”

In a message to reporters, Michael Leavitt mentioned, “My only concern has always been the safety, well being, and privacy of my son.”

Homeland Security, in the meantime, has described the mom of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew as a “criminal illegal alien” who has been accused of battery. Her legal professionals mentioned they’ve “found nothing” to help these allegations.

Officials additionally accused Ferreira of overstaying a vacationer visa that required her to depart the nation in 1999, when she was seven years previous. “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, all individuals unlawfully present in the United States are subject to deportation,” a spokesperson for Homeland Security mentioned in a press release Wednesday.

“This is all just rhetoric and turning the law on its head,” Rubin advised The Independent.

Ferreira’s authorized group is requesting a bond listening to in immigration courtroom to safe her launch from ICE custody.

This week, a federal decide in California struck down the Trump administration’s coverage that blocked most immigrants who entered the nation with out authorized permission from remaining in detention all through their elimination proceedings.

That determination might doubtlessly enable 1000’s of immigrants who’ve been locked up by way of the course of their elimination instances to be launched.

The Independent has requested remark from the White House.