Bruna Caroline Ferreira, who is the mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew and godson, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in November and held for deportation. Now, she is publicly recounting what happened and directing a pointed message toward the White House press secretary.
The 33-year-old, who shares a son with Karoline’s older brother, Michael Leavitt, was taken into custody while picking up her 11-year-old son from school in Revere, Massachusetts, on Nov. 12.
Breaking her silence in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett on Friday, Dec. 12, Ferreira appeared alongside her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, and did not hold back when speaking about the 28-year-old White House press secretary, who is also her child’s godmother. Ferreira told CNN that she chose Karoline for the role “over my sister.”
“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. “You are a mother now,” Ferreira continued, referencing Karoline’s 1-year-old son, Niko, whom she shares with her husband, Nicholas Riccio. “How would you feel if you were in those, in my shoes? … How would you feel if somebody did this to you?”
"Just because you went to a Catholic school doesn't make you a good Catholic. You're a mother…. How would you feel?"
— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) December 13, 2025
Bruna-Caroline Ferreira, the mother of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew responds directly to Leavitt's portrayal of her as an absentee… pic.twitter.com/59TOVQEAfZ
Karoline Leavitt has not publicly addressed the arrest. A source previously told PEOPLE that she has not spoken with Ferreira, her brother Michael’s former fiancée and co-parent, “in many years.”
Ferreira told CNN that she arrived in the United States from Brazil in 1998 at the age of 6. At the time she was detained, she said she was in the process of securing a green card and had previously been protected under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
According to CNN, Ferreira was released from the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center on the orders of an immigration judge days before her interview aired.
Her release followed what she described as weeks of a “mind-boggling” ordeal in which she was “shuffled around the entire country,” while federal agents refused to tell her where she was being taken.
After news of her detention became public, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE that Ferreira had been arrested, alleging that her tourist visa expired in 1999.
The spokesperson also claimed that Ferreira “has a previous arrest for battery,” an allegation her attorney has repeatedly denied. Ferreira again rejected the claim in her CNN interview, describing herself as “a law-abiding citizen.”
Asked about repeated assertions by the Trump administration that she is a “criminal,” Ferreira told Burnett, “I’m heartbroken. I’m heartbroken for my son. You know, I’m heartbroken for my mother, who has worked for a quarter of a century cleaning houses, earned an honest living, has paid her taxes. I’ve been a law-abiding citizen. I don’t even have a parking ticket. And I’m so proud of it.”
“I’m proud of my name and I carry it like a badge of honor, you know, like being on an honor roll,” she continued. “And now my child is sitting somewhere watching them broadcast this 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As a child, he must be terrified: ‘Is it true? Did my mom do something? Do I not know about it?’ Gossip in school … I don’t know what’s going on in his little mind, and I just want him to know that none of those things are true, honey. And we’re to square this all away.”
Reflecting on her time inside ICE detention facilities, Ferreira said, “You have a lot of time to think in there, you know, and you really think the worst. You think the worst. But the luck that I had is that I was surrounded by so many women, so many women that had four children. One was pregnant. … I can’t imagine. I just tried to put myself in their shoes.”
“I was in such a horrible situation, but they were praying for me and I was praying for them,” she added, noting that she was fortunate to have an attorney who could help move her case along. “I can’t fathom a mother not knowing where her son is for a year and a half, and who’s with him, what he’s eating, if he’s going to bed on time, if he’s sick. I can’t imagine,” she said. “It’s cruel.”
Ferreira became emotional as she described being transferred through multiple states. “When I got to Texas, I asked the ICE agent — because it said ‘Mexico’ — and 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?’ And he said, ‘No, we’re taking you to the final destination, your final stop before your deportation,’ which is south Louisiana. Hardly anyone ever gets out of there,” she said.
“So I just mustered up the courage to cry and sleep throughout that final voyage,” Ferreira continued. “And when I got to south Louisiana, I was finally able to, by the grace of God, some girl let me use her minutes to make a phone call and then to tell my family where I was and the attorneys.”
Toward the end of the interview, Burnett asked Ferreira about a White House claim that she had “never lived” with her son. Ferreira said she was baffled by the accusation. “Why lie? Because I have so many friends and family that have called me and said, ‘Why would anyone lie about this when it’s 2025?’ We have a digital footprint of everything,” she said.
“Every Wednesday, typically, my son and I go to Dave & Buster’s ‘cause it’s half off. We’re extreme couponers at our home,” Ferreira added with a laugh. “And I don’t, I can’t … I can’t wrap my mind around it, but it doesn’t make any sense.” “I’m just as lost as you are,” she said. “And I’m hoping that this interview gets me some answers.”
“You have a lot of time to think in there, you know, and you really think the worst. ”
A lot of time to think about everything except for what led to this situation. Instead of thinking about and contemplating how to fix it, or where missteps were made, she moves into how she thought about how everyone else is the problem. Seems like if she does get deported, we aren’t losing someone with the best reasoning skills.