Bruna Caroline Ferreira — the mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew and godson — says she was detained by ICE in November and spent weeks fearing she was headed for deportation. Now, she’s describing what happened in her first on-camera interview, and she’s directing sharp words at Leavitt, who serves as her son’s godmother.
Ferreira, 33, was arrested on Nov. 12 in Revere, Massachusetts, as she was picking up her 11-year-old son from school. She shares the child with Leavitt’s older brother, Michael Leavitt.
Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Friday, Dec. 12, Ferreira appeared alongside her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, and said the situation left her stunned — not only because of the detention itself, but because of what she views as silence from someone once close to her.
“I think what I would have to say to Karoline is: Just because you went to a Catholic school doesn’t make you a good Catholic,” Ferreira said during the interview. She then pointed to Leavitt’s own life as a parent, asking her to imagine the ordeal from the other side: “You are a mother now… How would you feel if you were in those, in my shoes? … How would you feel if somebody did this to you?”
Leavitt has not publicly commented on Ferreira’s arrest. Ferreira also said she chose Leavitt to be her son’s godmother “over my sister,” a decision she referenced while recounting the rupture in their relationship.
Ferreira told CNN she came to the United States from Brazil in 1998 when she was 6 years old. She said that at the time of her arrest she was in the process of pursuing a green card, and that she had previously been protected under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy.
CNN reported that Ferreira was released from the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center after an immigration judge ordered her release — just days before her interview aired. Ferreira described the weeks leading up to that moment as disorienting and frightening, saying she felt she was being moved across the country without clear explanations.
“It was a ‘mind-boggling’ experience,” she told the outlet, saying she was “shuffled around the entire country” while agents refused to tell her where she was being taken.
After Ferreira’s detention became public, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed her arrest and alleged that her tourist visa expired in 1999. The agency also claimed she “has a previous arrest for battery,” which her attorney has repeatedly disputed.
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During the CNN interview, Ferreira pushed back against the characterization of her as a criminal. “I’m heartbroken,” she said, explaining that the public claims have affected not only her, but also her son and her mother. Ferreira described her mother as someone who has worked for decades cleaning houses, earning an honest living and paying taxes. She also insisted she has lived within the law, emphasizing that she doesn’t even have “a parking ticket.”
She said what hurts most is imagining what her son might be hearing and believing as the story circulates. Ferreira said she wants him to understand that the allegations being repeated about her are not true, and that she intends to clear her name.
Ferreira also spoke about the other women she met while detained — many of them mothers — and described a grim solidarity inside the facilities. She said they prayed for each other, and she noted that she had an advantage others didn’t: legal representation that could accelerate her case.
“I can’t fathom a mother not knowing where her son is for a year and a half, and who’s with him,” Ferreira said. “It’s cruel.”
At one point, Ferreira recalled a moment she says intensified her fear: when she arrived in Texas and saw “Mexico” referenced, she begged an agent to tell her if she was being taken across the border. She said the agent replied that she was being moved to what he called her “final destination” before deportation — south Louisiana — a place she described as difficult to leave once you arrive there.
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She said she spent the last stretch of the trip crying and sleeping until she was finally able to make a phone call and inform her family and lawyers of her location.
Near the end of the interview, Burnett asked Ferreira about a separate claim from the White House that she “never lived” with her son. Ferreira said she didn’t understand why anyone would say that, arguing that modern life leaves a “digital footprint of everything.” She added specific details from her routine with her son — including weekly visits to Dave & Buster’s and a family habit of couponing — to underscore that she has been actively present in his life.
“I’m just as lost as you are,” she said. “And I’m hoping that this interview gets me some answers.”
