White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's Relative Arrested By ICE

A woman with family relations to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been taken into custody by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being arrested earlier this month.

According

to CNN, Bruna Caroline Ferreira, a Brazil native and the mother of Leavitt’s nephew, was arrested near Boston on November 12.

Leavitt’s nephew has always lived in New Hampshire with his father, the official’s brother Michael. CNN quoted sources as saying that Ferreira and the White House press secretary have not spoken in many years.

According to a spokesperson with the Department of Homeland Security, Ferreira was staying in the US even after overstaying a tourist visa that required her to leave in June 1999. Ferreira “has a previous arrest for battery” and is currently in removal proceedings, CNN quoted the spokesperson.

She was arrested while she was on her way to pick up her son from New Hampshire.

Meanwhile, Ferreira’s attorney Todd Pomerleau said she was a former recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which grants temporary protection to those who came to the US as children to be deported.

He further said that she was unable to renew her status a few years ago when President Donald Trump moved to end the DACA programme and is currently in the middle of a “lawful immigration process” for US citizenship.

Associated Press recently quoted Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin as saying that those with status under the Obama-era programme “are not automatically protected from deportations,” adding, “DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country.”