Bruna Ferreira came to the United States from Brazil as a young child and, in many ways, built the kind of life often described as the American dream: she played on her high school tennis team, got married and divorced, started a small business, and helped raise her son.
Earlier this month, as she left her home in a Boston suburb to pick up her son from school, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents took her into custody. At first, her arrest drew little attention; she appeared to be yet another immigrant swept up in President Donald Trump’s expanded deportation efforts despite deep roots in the country.
During the encounter, however, Ferreira repeatedly told officers that her son’s aunt was the White House press secretary, her sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, told the Boston Globe. Ferreira’s former fiancé — the father of her 11-year-old son — is the brother of Karoline Leavitt.
“I’m sure she tried to just use whatever she could come up with in the moment,” Dos Santos Rodrigues told the Globe. “However, it didn’t really help very much.”
Once her connection to Leavitt became public, Ferreira’s case quickly evolved into a flashpoint over the reach of the administration’s immigration crackdown. The White House has characterized her as a “criminal illegal alien” who was arrested for battery, while her attorneys insist she has no criminal record and that she previously received protection from deportation under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Ferreira, 33, is now being held in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana while she faces deportation proceedings. Her sister told the Globe that Ferreira ended her relationship with her son’s father, Michael Leavitt, now 35, about a decade ago. A source familiar with the situation told CNN that Ferreira and the White House press secretary have not spoken in many years.
Ferreira’s attorney, Todd Pomerleau, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Wednesday that she remains intertwined with the Leavitt family. He said the press secretary is her son’s godmother and added, “She’s part of the Leavitt family’s lives.”
Ferreira arrived in the United States at age six with her parents, according to Dos Santos Rodrigues, who described her sister as “more American than she is anything else.” A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Ferreira entered the country on a tourist visa that required her to depart in 1999.
Pomerleau argued that Ferreira cannot reasonably be blamed for immigration violations tied to a decision made when she was a child.
“A 6-year-old isn’t responsible for breaking the law,” he said on CNN’s “OutFront.” “A 6-year-old such as her would only be responsible for being in a visa violation status six months after [her] 18th birthday. By then, she already had DACA, which is a lawful process.”
He also noted that Ferreira is “in the middle of applying for her green card, which she’s been waiting for for 27 years.”
Ferreira spent most of her life in the Boston area. She attended Melrose High School, where she played tennis and graduated in 2011, according to school yearbooks. In her senior yearbook, she selected the quote “La vita e bella” and predicted that “In the year 2021,” she would be “older, wiser and successful.”
A few months after graduation, Ferreira married a high school classmate. They separated the following year and finalized their divorce in 2014, according to court records.
By then, she was engaged to Michael Leavitt, the older brother of Karoline Leavitt, who managed his family’s auto dealership in New Hampshire. A 2014 Salem News article about Michael Leavitt winning $1 million in a fantasy football contest showed him, Ferreira, and their then eight-month-old son smiling beside an oversized prize check.
In that story, Ferreira said the family had no major plans for the money.
“I need the lights fixed on the back of my car,” she said. “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.”
Court records from that period list Ferreira’s address as a home that Michael Leavitt owned in Atkinson, New Hampshire, just across the Massachusetts border.
On Facebook, Ferreira posted photos of outings with her young son — trick-or-treating, attending his first Boston Red Sox game, and other everyday moments. The couple never married, though, and their son ultimately lived with his father in New Hampshire after Ferreira moved back to Massachusetts, a source familiar with the situation told CNN.
Michael Leavitt told CNN affiliate WMUR on Tuesday night that Ferreira continued to have contact with their son, though the boy has not spoken with her since she was detained. He said the situation is difficult and that his priority is his son’s well-being.
After returning to Massachusetts, Ferreira ran a home-cleaning business, according to friends and her social media. Lisa Batista, who worked with Ferreira for about two years at a Boston-area nightclub in 2016 and 2017, recalled her as “very friendly, very hardworking.” Batista said she was stunned when a former coworker told her on Wednesday morning that Ferreira had been taken into ICE custody.
Even after moving, Ferreira regularly drove between Massachusetts and New Hampshire to see her son, Dos Santos Rodrigues told the Globe. She would cook him Brazilian dishes and take him to Dave & Buster’s on visits, her sister said.
According to Dos Santos Rodrigues, the family has not heard from Karoline Leavitt. She also said that Michael Leavitt had urged Ferreira to “self-deport” to Brazil — something the family rejects, insisting the United States is her true home.
Ferreira’s son “needs his mom home,” Dos Santos Rodrigues said. “He’s always asking, ‘When’s my mom coming home? Will she be home for Thanksgiving? Will she be home for Christmas?’”
Pomerleau told CNN that when he last spoke with Ferreira, she was in tears.
“She wants her son,” he said.
