The mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew has been released from immigration detention, nearly a month after she was taken into custody.
Bruna Caroline Ferreira, who shares a child with Leavitt’s brother, was taken into custody on Nov. 12 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Revere, Massachusetts, while she was driving to her son’s school, her attorney Todd Pomerleau told reporters last month.
Pomerleau said Tuesday that she was released on a $1,500 bond, the lowest amount permitted under immigration law. He stated in a phone interview that he had a brief conversation with Ferreira, who said she was traveling back to the Northeast from Louisiana.
"We argued forcefully that she was not a danger or flight risk, discussed the numerous forms of relief available to her to receive lawful permanent residency, and that the DHS’ narrative that she was a ‘criminal illegal alien’ was false as a matter of fact and law, as she has never been arrested for any crime," Pomerleau said in a Tuesday statement.
The statement added that the only time she has been arrested was on Nov. 12, which he called an "unconstitutional ICE charade."
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Monday night that Ferreira was “a criminal illegal alien from Brazil” who had been arrested for battery and that she entered the U.S. on a B2 tourist visa that required her to leave by June 6, 1999.
The DHS statement added that a judge authorized her release and bond payment upon her entry into “removal proceedings.”
Ferreira challenged the characterization of her in an interview with The Washington Post this week. She said that she had overstayed her visa as a child, a civil violation, and was raised in the United States.
Ferreira described meeting Leavitt’s brother, Michael, at a nightclub and falling in love. According to the Post, the pair broke off their engagement in 2015 and have shared parenting responsibilities of their 11-year-old son. Details of their current co-parenting duties were not immediately clear.
"I asked Karoline to be godmother over my only sister," Ferreira told the Post. "Why they’re creating this narrative is beyond my wildest imagination."
Ferreira’s sister did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment on Monday.
In a phone interview with NBC News, Pomerleau stated that Ferreira has no criminal record and believes the government is referring to a 2008 incident in which Ferreira, then 16, was summoned to juvenile court for an argument outside a Dunkin' Donuts.
Pomerleau added that the case was dismissed.
"These are private, noncriminal, proceedings under the law, and she was never arrested — she was given a summons," Pomerleau said. "It’s false as a matter of fact and a matter of law."
Pomerleau also noted that he raised these points in his argument at Ferreira's bond hearing and that the government's lawyer did not attempt to challenge them.
Juvenile court records are sealed, and Ferreira was a minor at the time. The White House and DHS did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment on Tuesday.
