Trump aide Karoline Leavitt's nephew's mother held by ICE, to be deported amid immigration crackdown: ‘Illegal alien’

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's nephew's mother was detained by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this month and is slated for deportation, reports said.

As per a report by CNN, Bruna Caroline Ferreira, a Brazilian native formerly engaged to Karoline Leavitt's brother Michael and the mother of her nephew, was arrested near Boston on 12 November.

She was arrested while driving to pick up her 11-year-old son, whose custody she jointly shares with Michael.

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told the news outlet that Ferreira had been living in the US illegally since 1999, overstaying her tourist visa.

DHS described her as "a criminal illegal alien from Brazil” with “a previous arrest for battery”, and said that Ferreira is in the process of being deported from the US.

Ferreira's camp contests ‘illegal alien’ claim

However, Ferreira's attorney, Todd Pomerleau, disputed DHS's characterisation of her client, telling CNN that the Brazilian native had no criminal record.

“We dispute that she has any criminal record. She is not a ‘criminal illegal alien,’” was Pomerleau's assertion.

The attorney added that Ferreira was a former recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which provides temporary protection from deportation for those who arrive in the US as children.

Pomerleau said Ferreira is currently in the middle of a “lawful immigration process” for US citizenship, having failed to renew her status under DACA a few years back when Trump attempted to end the programme.

As it stands, Ferreira is being detained at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Centre in Basile, about 80 miles from Baton Rouge and more than 1,500 miles from where she was arrested in Boston.

Meanwhile, Ferreira's sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, has set up a GoFundMe page to cover her legal expenses; as of the time of writing, over $30,000 had been raised on the page.

“Bruna was brought to the United States by our parents in December of 1998, when she was just a child … Since then, she has done everything in her power to build a stable, honest life here,” Rodrigues wrote on the GoFundMe page.

“She has maintained her legal status through DACA, followed every requirement, and has always strived to do the right thing,” Ferreira's sister added.

As of the time of writing, Leavitt had not yet commented on Ferreira's detention.