Amanda Ungaro, a Brazilian model with past social ties to President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, described what she called a hellish experience in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in an interview with El País that was published on Sunday.
Ungaro, 41, said she was held first in Miami and later transferred to Louisiana, where she was kept in a hall with more than 120 detainees, went days without sunlight, and “came out infested with lice.”
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by email Sunday for comment.
Why It Matters
Ungaro threatened to upend the first lady’s life in a series of intensifying posts on X just hours before Melania Trump disavowed all ties to Jeffrey Epstein or knowledge of his crimes on Thursday.
“I will tear down your corrupt system, even if it’s the last thing I do in my life,” Ungaro posted on X. “I will go all the way—I am not afraid. Maybe you should be afraid of what I know … of who you are, and who your husband is.”
Her new claims arrived as the United States continues to face legal and political battles over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, detention standards, and due process for noncitizens.
Ungaro’s previous proximity to the Trumps and to Italian modeling agent Paolo Zampolli—who denied involvement in her detention and was appointed last year by Trump to be special representative for global partnerships at the United Nations—gave the case heightened visibility and underscored tensions between personal networks and public policy.
What To Know
Ungaro said police arrested her and her husband in Florida in June after an anonymous tip related to a cosmetic clinic. She told El País she had no prior criminal record and was placed in a cell with “child murderers.”
The model said she was handcuffed and transferred to an immigration detention center in Miami, where she “spent the whole day crying,” and saw an elderly detainee “handcuffed to a wheelchair.”
She described another incident where a woman who miscarried “waited an agonizingly long time for medical care.”
Ungaro also noted some detainees she was kept with had residency permits.
After about three-and a-half-months, Ungaro said she was transferred to Louisiana and then deported to Brazil following her arrest on fraud charges and expired visa last year.
She described the Louisiana facility to El País as “a hall with more than 120 people, the floor was wet, there were no windows, four days without seeing the sun… I came out infested with lice.”
Ties to the Trumps
Ungaro and Zampolli have a long personal history and once moved in the same social circles as the Trumps, including New Year’s celebrations at Mar-a-Lago in 2022, according to The Daily Beast.
Zampolli, a modeling agent credited with introducing Melania to Trump, served as a special envoy during Trump’s first term and sits on the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, the report said.
Ungaro accused Zampolli, her former partner and the father of her son, of leveraging connections to have her moved into ICE custody. Zampolli has denied involvement, and the DHS also denied any interference from him.
“Any suggestion that she was arrested and removed for political reasons or favors is FALSE,” DHS officials told the New York Times in a statement.
Zampolli said his “relationship with the biological mother of my son was very difficult,” adding, “I stick around for my son because in Italy, normally you have a father and a mother,” The Daily Beast reported.
A spokesperson for Melania, cited by The Daily Beast, previously said the first lady “has no knowledge of, nor involvement in, the personal affairs of Mr. Zampoli and Ms. Ungaro.”
What Happens Next
It was not immediately clear whether Ungaro plans to pursue legal action in the U.S. or Brazil regarding her detention or deportation.
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