Woman who has ties to White House aide and was detained by ICE speaks out.
Bruna Ferreira had rushed out of her Massachusetts home, shoelaces untied, and was driving to pick up her 11-year-old son from school when she was approached by unmarked vehicles and a "swarm of people."
The 33-year-old woman, the mother ofWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt's nephew, was being surrounded by federal immigration agents asking her to confirm her name, she told CNN's Erin Burnett Friday in an interview.
The November 12 arrest near Boston at first felt like a traffic stop – but seemed bizarre as agents already seemed to know her name, the Brazilian native said.
"How could you possibly know who I am and where I live?" Ferreira asked.
While agents took her to the nearby Revere Police Department to verify her identity, Ferreira started calling her emergency contacts to make sure her son was picked up from school.
"I just started panicking, trying to see if I could get somebody, an emergency contact, anybody to answer me, to pick up Michael from school," she said.
Ferreira was previously engaged to her son's father, Michael Leavitt, her attorney Todd Pomerleau previously told CNN. Michael Leavitt is the brother of Karoline Leavitt.
An immigration judge ordered for her to bereleased from the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basileearlier this week.
During the 26 days in immigration custody, Ferreira was taken from Massachusetts to facilities in four other states before she was taken to Louisiana – more than 1,500 miles from where she was arrested, she said.
Once she arrived at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, Ferreira was "by the grace of God" able to use another woman's phone minutes to make a call and let her family and attorney know where she was, she said.
She wasn't able to speak to her son during her detainment, where she met many other mothers in her same situation, and they all prayed for one another, which helped her get through the "horrible situation," Ferreira said.
CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Earlier this week, Ferreira's bond was set at $1,500 during a hearing, the lowest amount allowed under the law, Pomerleau said. Her case will continue in Boston immigration court.
Ferreira will still be required to "have periodic mandatory check-ins with ICE law enforcement to ensure she is abiding by the terms of her release," DHS said in a statement after she was given bond.
Ferreira to Leavitt: 'How would you feel if somebody did this to you?'
Ferreira has been in the United States since she was 6 years old and has been trying to get her green card ever since, she and Pomerleau said. Even though DHS has repeatedly claimed Ferreira has a criminal history, she disputes that, saying, "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," the mother said. "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."
She hasn't been able to see her son since her return to Massachusetts as she is required to wear a GPS monitor, and the boy's father hasn't brought him to see her, Ferreira said.
The entire situation "doesn't make sense," Ferreira said. "I'm trying to understand and have faith that there's some logical explanation behind any of this, but there isn't. I'm not the first. I'm surely not going to be the last. There's thousands of women and families and children being separated daily. Where does it end? When does it stop?"
Ferreira hasn't spoken to Karoline Leavitt – who is her son's godmother – since she's returned to Massachusetts, she said.
She addressed the White House press secretary during the interview with CNN:
"You're a mother," Ferreira said. "You are a mother now. And you should know. How would you feel if you were in my shoes? How would you feel if somebody did this to you?"
A DHS spokesperson previously told CNN that Ferreira was in the US illegally after overstaying a tourist visa that required her to leave the country in June 1999. Ferreira is "a criminal illegal alien from Brazil," DHS said.
Ferreira's attorney has said the DHS statement is inaccurate.
Pomerleau said she was a former recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which grants temporary protection from deportation for those brought to the US as children, but was unable to renew her status a few years ago and has been trying to obtain legal permanent resident status.
Pomerleau said his client is the victim of "false character assassination" with the administration "labeling her a criminal illegal alien."
"It's a woman who has two businesses. It's a single mother paying her taxes and winds up in a for-profit prison in Louisiana. It's just unconscionable what they're doing on a daily basis," the attorney said.
CNN's Alejandra Jaramillo, Karina Tsui and Chris Boyette contributed to this report.
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