MIAMI — The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs announced on Monday that it has asked a Brazilian government official to leave the United States, accusing him of attempting to manipulate the country’s immigration system to extend what it called a “political witch hunt” on American soil.
The official, identified by the Brazilian news outlet Metrópoles as Federal Police delegate Marcelo Ivo de Carvalho, has served since August 2023 as Brazil’s liaison officer embedded within the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Miami — the only Brazilian Federal Police delegate stationed inside an ICE facility in the United States.
“No foreigner gets to game our immigration system to both circumvent formal extradition requests and extend political witch hunts into U.S. territory,” the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs wrote in a post on X on Monday afternoon.
“Today, we have asked that the relevant Brazilian official depart our nation for attempting to do that.”
Metrópoles confirmed that Marcelo Ivo will leave the country and is expected to return to Brazil. The Brazilian Federal Police did not respond to requests for comment.
The Ramagem Connection
The expulsion is a direct consequence of the case of Alexandre Ramagem — Brazil’s fugitive former intelligence chief, who was detained by ICE in Orlando on April 13 and released two days later, in circumstances that infuriated Brasília and embarrassed Lula’s government.
Marcelo Ivo was publicly identified by Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues as the officer whose alerts led to Ramagem’s detention.
According to A Investigação, a Brazilian investigative outlet, Ivo is the only Brazilian federal delegate stationed inside the ICE Miami office, and was described as the operational link through which Brazil’s federal police communicated intelligence about Ramagem’s immigration status to U.S. authorities.
Ramagem — convicted by Brazil’s Supreme Court to 16 years in prison for his role in a plot to overturn the results of the 2022 presidential election — entered the United States on a tourist visa in September 2025 and remained after it expired in March 2026.
He had a pending asylum application under review at the time of his detention.
Bolsonaro allies, including journalist Paulo Figueiredo, insisted from the outset that the detention had not resulted from any coordinated cooperation between Brazil and the United States, but from a routine traffic stop that triggered an immigration check. Brazil’s federal police publicly contradicted that account, describing it as a result of international law enforcement cooperation.
Ramagem was released on April 15 without paying bail. ICE informed Brazil’s federal police that he could remain free while his asylum process continued. The release blindsided Brazilian investigators, who were preparing a dossier to accelerate his removal when they learned he was already out.
For Sociedad Media’s earlier reporting on Ramagem's detention and release, read here.
Prior Conduct Allegations
The Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs’ statement was not the first time Marcelo Ivo’s conduct in the United States had drawn scrutiny.
According to A Investigação, Ivo was the officer named in a March 2024 formal document through which Brazil’s Federal Police asked the Miami liaison office to monitor Flávia Magalhães — a Brazilian-born U.S. citizen residing legally in Florida since 2012 — after she made social media posts critical of Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
Magalhães was not a defendant in any criminal case at the time.
The publication also reported that Ivo conducted surveillance operations in Florida without a U.S. judicial warrant — practices that, if confirmed, could implicate provisions of U.S. federal law governing foreign law enforcement activities and false statements to federal authorities.
Sociedad Media has not independently verified those specific allegations. The Brazilian Federal Police did not respond to requests for comment from A Investigação or other outlets before publication.
Washington’s Position
The State Department’s decision to expel a foreign law enforcement officer embedded within a U.S. federal agency is unusual and carries significant diplomatic weight. It is also consistent with the posture the Trump administration has taken throughout the Ramagem affair: treating Brazil’s prosecution of Bolsonaro-era officials as politically motivated persecution rather than a legitimate criminal proceeding.
Trump previously sanctioned members of the Brazilian judiciary involved in the Bolsonaro case and framed Brazil’s tariff situation in part around the prosecution of a conservative ally.
His administration’s handling of the Ramagem case — releasing a convicted fugitive from ICE custody within 48 hours and now expelling the Brazilian officer who helped put him there — reflects an alignment of political interest with Bolsonaro’s network in Florida that Brasília has been unable to counteract through formal legal channels.
Ramagem’s asylum application remains pending. Brazil’s extradition request, filed with the State Department on December 30, 2025, remains unanswered.
What Comes Next
With Marcelo Ivo’s departure, Brazil loses its primary institutional foothold within the U.S. immigration enforcement system. The expulsion effectively closes the operational channel through which Brasília has been attempting to press its case against Ramagem on American soil.
Whether the Brazilian government will seek to replace Ivo in his liaison role — or whether the Trump administration would accept a replacement — is unclear.
The broader question of Ramagem’s legal status in the United States remains entirely unresolved: an active asylum claim, an unanswered extradition treaty, and an administration whose ideological sympathies are not with the government making the request.
Brazil holds presidential elections in October 2026. The handling of the Ramagem case will continue to be read in Brasília — and across Latin America — as a reliable indicator of how far Washington’s solidarity with Bolsonaro’s political movement actually extends.
Sociedad Media is continuing to monitor the Ramagem case and U.S.-Brazil relations. For tips and reporting leads, contact info@sociedadmedia.com
