ICE detains Daniela Bittner, late Peanut the Squirrel’s owner; social media model faces possible deportation to Germany

Detailed summary

The Department of Homeland Security under President Donald Trump has put Daniela Bittner, one of the late Peanut the Squirrel’s owners, in an immigration jail.

The Department of Homeland Security under President Donald Trump has put Daniela Bittner, one of the late Peanut the Squirrel’s owners, in an immigration jail, NBC News reported. She is now facing possible deportation to Germany.

The euthanisation of Peanut the Squirrel in 2024 triggered a national outrage.

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

Bittner, 30, was nabbed by ICE because she is an undocumented German national who “overstayed her welcome,” the Department of Homeland Security said, per the New York Post.

Bittner, a social media model who also posted on OnlyFans, was taken into custody last month after entering the United legally several years ago, according to DHS. She had been living with her husband at the upstate Pine City animal sanctuary that they ran.

“On October 15, 2026, ICE arrested Daniela Bittner, an illegal alien from Germany, at the Elmira Corning Regional Airport. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings and will receive due process,” a DHS spokesperson said, according to the outlet.

“Between May 2021 and November 2022, Bittner lawfully entered the country multiple times with permission to stay for a temporary period. She chose to overstay her welcome in defiance of our nation’s laws,” the spokesperson continued.

“To be clear, a pending application does not confer legal status in the United States,” they added.

Since then, Bittner has been moved through several immigration lockups. She is now housed in Texas, her husband Mark Longo said, per NBC News. He said that conditions in the lockups are “deplorable” and went on to blame her detention on an immigration paperwork mix-up.

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