Bruna Caroline Ferreira — the mother of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew — publicly criticized Leavitt in her first appearance since being released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
Ferreira, who was previously engaged to Leavitt’s brother, Michael, and shares custody of their son, was interviewed on CNN on Friday. Asked whether she had a message for the press secretary — who has not publicly addressed the situation — Ferreira responded: “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.”
Speaking directly to Leavitt, whom she noted attended Catholic high school and college and is also the child’s godmother, Ferreira added: “You’re a mother. You are a mother now, and you should know. How would you feel if you were in my shoes, you know? How would you feel if somebody did this to you?”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TIME following Ferreira’s remarks.
During the interview, Ferreira described her arrest and detention, which have drawn attention to Leavitt’s family amid the Trump Administration’s push to carry out what it has described as the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history.
Ferreira said she was rushing to pick up her 11-year-old child from school when unmarked vehicles surrounded her home in Massachusetts. She said she was arrested by ICE officers without a warrant and ultimately taken to Louisiana.
Ferreira, who said she is seeking a green card, entered the United States from Brazil when she was 6 years old. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has claimed she is in the country unlawfully, alleging she entered on a B-2 tourist visa and was required to depart by June 6, 1999.
Appearing alongside her on CNN, Ferreira’s lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, disputed DHS’s characterization of her as a “criminal illegal alien,” calling it a “false character assassination” based on her alleged immigration status.
An earlier report about Ferreira’s detention cited a person familiar with the situation who told the New York Times that Leavitt and Ferreira had not spoken in years, despite the family connection.
In the CNN interview, Ferreira described what she said were a series of transfers through multiple states. She claimed she was moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire, then to Vermont, then to Philadelphia, then to Texas — and that agents did not explain where she was being taken or why.
Ferreira said that upon arriving in Texas, seeing a sign that read Mexico intensified her fear that she would be removed from the country immediately. She recalled pleading with an ICE agent for clarity: “I said, can you please, please, please have a little bit of empathy for me and tell me if you’re taking me across the border?” Ferreira said the agent replied that she was being taken to what he called her “final destination” before deportation: South Louisiana. Ferreira said she was told, “Hardly anybody ever gets out of there.”
Ferreira spent three weeks at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center before a judge on Monday allowed her to post bail. Reports have raised concerns about conditions at the facility, including allegations of sexual harassment and abuse and “neglect of urgent medical care.”
According to data released by the Prison Policy Initiative on Dec. 1, ICE made approximately 217,518 arrests between Jan. 20 and Oct. 15, 2025. The organization’s figures show the average daily arrest count rising from around 300 in early 2024 to more than 800 in January 2025, and to over 1,000 by October 2025.
Pomerleau criticized the handling of Ferreira’s case, telling CNN that during one transfer an officer allegedly assumed she did not speak English and remarked, “Oh, we got more business coming in.” He described the Louisiana detention site as a taxpayer-funded, for-profit facility, adding that Ferreira is “a woman who owns two businesses, is a single mother, paying her taxes,” and argued, “It’s unconscionable what they are doing on a daily basis.”
Ferreira also responded to a Washington Post report alleging the White House tried to portray her as an absentee parent who never lived with her son. She rejected the claim and questioned why it would be made.
“Why? Why lie? Why lie? Because I have so many friends and family that called me and said why would anyone lie about this when it’s 2025?” she said. “We have a digital footprint of everything. It doesn’t make any sense. I’m just as confused as you are, and I’m hoping this interview gets me some answers.”
