Peanut the squirrel’s former owner has been detained by ICE, could be deported

PINE CITY, N.Y. — When New York wildlife officers euthanized a couple’s pet squirrel, Peanut, two years ago, Republicans including JD Vance seized on the critter’s killing as just another example of government overreach from meddling Democrats.

“The same government that doesn’t care about hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant criminals coming into our country doesn’t want us to have pets. It’s the craziest, the craziest thing,” Vance said at a rally just before the 2024 election.

Now, the Department of Homeland Security under President Donald Trump has put one of the late squirrel’s owners in an immigration jail, pending possible deportation to Germany.

Daniela Bittner was arrested by immigration officers in mid-October at a small airport near New York’s border with Pennsylvania. DHS issued a statement saying Bittner was arrested because she “chose to overstay her welcome in defiance of our nation’s laws.”

Since then, Bittner has been moved through multiple immigration lockups and is now housed in Texas, according to her husband, Mark Longo, who called conditions in the lockups “deplorable.” He blamed her detention on an immigration paperwork mix-up.

“They put Peanut on a pedestal, won their election, and threw him off that pedestal immediately,” Longo said.

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business