White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt's family member detained by ICE

A Brazilian woman with family ties to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is being held in ICE custody after her detainment near Boston earlier this month for allegedly overstaying a long-expired US visa.

Bruna Caroline Ferreira, the former partner of Leavitt's brother and mother of his son, was detained on 12 November, her lawyer Todd Pomerleau told CNN. Ferreira, who is originally from Brazil, is now in removal proceedings, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson.

The spokesperson said Ferreira entered the United States on a tourist visa that required her to leave the country in June 1999, and described her as "a criminal illegal alien from Brazil" with "a previous arrest for battery". Pomerleau rejected that characterisation, insisting the DHS statement is inaccurate.

"We dispute that she has any criminal record. She is not a 'criminal illegal alien'," he told CNN.

Pomerleau said Ferreira was previously a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), having been brought to the US as a child in December 1998.

She was unable to renew her status when Donald Trump moved to end the programme during his first administration, but is now in the middle of what her lawyer described as a "lawful immigration process" for citizenship.

Ferreira was detained while driving to pick up her 11-year-old son from New Hampshire, Pomerleau said. She and Michael Leavitt, Karoline Leavitt's brother, were previously engaged and share joint custody.

The boy has lived full-time in New Hampshire with his father since birth, a source told CNN, and has not spoken to his mother since her detention. Michael Leavitt told CNN affiliate WMUR the situation is difficult, saying he wants only what is best for their son.

Ferreira is currently being held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, more than 1,500 miles from where she was arrested and about 80 miles from Baton Rouge.

A verified GoFundMe page set up by Ferreira's sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, has raised more than $15,000 as of Wednesday morning to support legal fees and related expenses. In the campaign, she wrote that Ferreira has worked to "build a stable, honest life" in the US and had "maintained her legal status through DACA".

Although the Supreme Court blocked Trump's attempt to end DACA, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin recently told the Associated Press that recipients "are not automatically protected from deportations", adding that the programme "does not confer any form of legal status in this country".

Karoline Leavitt has declined to comment on the matter.