The Brazilian-born mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew – who was recently detained by US immigration authorities – has rejected the Trump administration’s characterizations of her as an absentee parent.

Bruna Ferreira, who was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in November during a traffic stop in Massachusetts and was being held at a Louisiana detention center, said in an interview with the Washington Post that the White House’s statements that she had never lived with her son or spoken with Leavitt “in many years” were incorrect.