The mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew has lashed out at the White House Press Secretary during her first public appearance since being released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

Bruna Caroline Ferreira, who was previously engaged to Leavitt’s brother Michael and shares custody of their son, was asked during an interview on Friday if she had a message for the Press Secretary—who has publicly distanced herself from the incident. 

“To Karoline, I’d say this: Attending a Catholic school doesn’t automatically make you a good Catholic.”

Speaking directly to Leavitt—who attended Catholic high school and college and is the godmother of Ferreira’s son—she continued: “You’re a mother now; you ought to understand. What if you were in my position? How would you feel if someone treated you this way?”

The White House did not promptly reply to TIME’s request for comment after Ferreira made these statements.

In the interview, Ferreira detailed her arrest and detention experience, which drew attention to Leavitt’s family amid the Trump Administration’s push to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history.   

She recalled being in a rush to pick up her 11-year-old son from school when several unmarked vehicles surrounded her Massachusetts home. The 33-year-old—her shoes still untied from her haste—was arrested by ICE agents without a warrant and transported to Louisiana.

Ferreira, who is applying for a green card, came to the U.S. from Brazil at age 6. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asserted she was in the country unlawfully, claiming she entered on a B-2 tourist visa that required her to depart by June 6, 1999. 

During their joint Friday evening interview, Ferreira’s attorney Todd Pomerleau argued that DHS’s label of her as a “criminal illegal alien”—based on her purported immigration status—is a “baseless character attack.”

In earlier New York Times coverage of Ferreira’s detention, an anonymous source close to the situation stated that Leavitt and Ferreira had not communicated in years, despite their family ties. 

During her Friday appearance, Ferreira described her chaotic experiences with ICE. She said she was transferred from Massachusetts to New Hampshire, then to Vermont, Philadelphia, and finally Texas—with ICE agents never informing her of her destination or the reason for the moves.

When she arrived in Texas and saw a sign for Mexico, she begged an ICE agent: “Can you please, please have some empathy and tell me if you’re taking me across the border?” Ferreira recalled, her voice shaking. “He said no—we’re taking you to your final stop before deportation: South Louisiana. Barely anyone ever leaves there.”

Allegations of sexual harassment, abuse, and neglect of urgent medical care have surfaced at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, where Ferreira was held for three weeks before a judge granted her bail on Monday.

Data from the Prison Policy Initiative, released on Dec. 1, shows ICE made roughly 217,518 arrests between Jan. 20 and Oct. 15, 2025. Daily arrests averaged around 300 in early 2024, climbed to over 800 in January 2025, and exceeded 1,000 by October of this year.

Pomerleau told CNN: “When she was taken to Vermont, an ICE officer assumed she didn’t speak English and said, ‘Oh, we’ve got more business coming in.’ Then she ended up in Louisiana—another taxpayer-funded for-profit prison hellhole. This is a woman who runs two businesses, is a single mom, pays her taxes, yet ends up in a Louisiana for-profit prison. What they do every day is unforgivable.”

When asked about a Washington Post story claiming the White House tried to suggest Ferreira was an absentee parent who never lived with her son, she voiced her frustration over the issue. 

“Why lie? Why make up such things? My friends and family called me asking why anyone would lie about this in 2025,” she said. “Everything leaves a digital trail now—it doesn’t add up. I’m just as confused as you are, and I hope this interview gives me some clarity.”