A mother sits behind cold, unyielding bars in a South Louisiana ICE processing center, the fluorescent lights casting a harsh glare on her weary face, while her 11-year-old son waits at home, unsure if she will ever return. Every tick of the clock echoes in the empty spaces of his small apartment, a sound that no child should ever hear when they are waiting for a parent to come home. The situation is not just heartbreaking—it’s jarring in its political and personal complexity. Bruna Ferreira, a woman whose life has largely been spent trying to create stability, now finds herself trapped in the collision of immigration policy, bureaucracy, and the stark, unforgiving mechanics of deportation. The twist that makes her story even more charged: her family has direct ties to the White House, specifically through Michael Leavitt, the brother of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
