A Brazilian mannequin has alleged she was detained and deported from the USA after a request linked to a detailed affiliate of US President Donald Trump. The mannequin claimed the entire thing was a conspiracy by her ex to win the custody dispute over their teenage son.41-year-old Amanda Ungaro mentioned her former companion Paolo Zampolli, a long-time good friend of Trump and a White Home envoy, used his highly effective affect to have her positioned in immigration detention and finally deported to Brazil.“It was not sufficient for him to destroy me throughout 20 years of relationship: he needed to destroy me once more after I began a brand new life, after I obtained married,” Ungaro informed Spanish newspaper ‘El País’ from her residence in Rio de Janeiro.The claims come from occasions in June 2025, when Ungaro was arrested in Miami alongside along with her present husband, a Brazilian physician, over alleged fraud linked to a beauty clinic. She has denied wrongdoing and mentioned she had no prior legal file. In response to her, round ten officers “stormed” their residence earlier than taking them into custody.On the time of her arrest, Ungaro’s most up-to-date US visa had expired in 2019, leaving her with out authorized immigration standing. In response to reporting by The New York Instances, Zampolli contacted a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official to ask whether or not she may very well be transferred into ICE custody. Throughout that decision, the case was described as vital to “somebody near the White Home.”Ungaro alleges that her former companion used her immigration standing as leverage of their ongoing custody battle over their 16-year-old son. She mentioned she was later handcuffed and moved to an immigration detention centre in Miami, the place she spent “the entire day crying.”Her account of detention describes harsh circumstances. She mentioned she was held alongside violent offenders, together with “little one murderers”, and witnessed scenes equivalent to an aged detainee restrained to a wheelchair and a girl who miscarried whereas ready for medical care. Ungaro additionally claimed that a number of detainees had authorized residency standing.After greater than three months in custody, she was transferred to Louisiana earlier than being deported to Brazil. “It was a corridor with greater than 120 folks, the ground was moist, there have been no home windows, 4 days with out seeing the solar… I got here out infested with lice,” she mentioned.Ungaro mentioned she returned to Brazil with nothing however her jail uniform. She had left Brazil on the age of 13 to pursue a modelling profession in the USA.Zampolli outright denied the allegations, saying he didn’t request any particular therapy. “My relationship with the organic mom of my son was very tough. I stick round for my son as a result of in Italy, usually you’ve a father and a mom,” he informed the Day by day Beast. He has mentioned he solely sought details about the authorized course of.The US Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) has additionally rejected claims of political interference, stating that Ungaro’s detention and deportation had been resulting from her expired visa and the fraud prices.
Zampolli launched Melania Trump to Trump within the Nineteen Nineties and has lengthy moved within the president’s circle for a very long time. He additionally addressed previous claims about how he launched them, saying, “I mentioned: ‘Melania meet Donald, Donald meet Melania,’ after which I left the desk as a result of I had 300 friends.”A spokesperson for Melania Trump mentioned she “has no information of, nor involvement in, the private affairs of Mr. Zampoli and Ms. Ungaro,” and confirmed she has no contact with ICE.Zampolli’s title has additionally appeared in paperwork linked to Jeffrey Epstein, although he has not been accused of any wrongdoing in reference to the late pedophile.
