Husband Says Ex-Owner of P’Nut the Squirrel Held by ICE for Nearly a Month
Daniela Bittner, the 30-year-old German-born co-owner of the viral squirrel P'Nut, has been in federal immigration custody for nearly a month, her husband Mark Longo says. The Department of Homeland Security says she overstayed a temporary stay. She could face administrative deportation.
Daniela Bittner, the 30-year-old German-born former owner of P'Nut the squirrel, has been held in US immigration custody for nearly a month, her husband, Mark Longo, said on November 11. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained her, and she could be deported at any minute, he said.
P'Nut was the viral pet squirrel seized and decapitated by New York state officials. Longo and Bittner, a married couple with a large social media following, run a nonprofit called P'Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary. They keep about 600 animals there, including 100 horses.
Longo said deportation would end the sanctuary. He described the case as a paperwork mix-up.
Arrest at the airport
The couple drove to Elmira airport in upstate New York on October 16 to fly to a TikTok event, Longo said. As they got out of the car, plainclothes officers who refused to identify themselves swarmed them.
Agents took Bittner away. She has since been moved between detention centers in Syracuse, Buffalo, Louisiana and Texas, according to Longo.
He said she is being held in "deplorable conditions." She wears 24-hour contact lenses and could not get a new pair for more than two weeks, which he said "almost pulled her retinas off her eyeballs."
Competing accounts of her status
Longo said Bittner entered the country legally on a visa and has no criminal history. He said the government now claims the couple filed the wrong form.
"She came into this country legally on a visa. We filed the paperwork and stuff and apparently the government is saying we filed the wrong piece of paper," Longo said.
He said he traveled to Germany in 2022 to sort out her visa situation, and the two married later that year in Connecticut. They then "proceeded with all of the paperwork for immigration status," he said. Officials asked for more information, which they supplied, and then sent a letter saying the application was denied because of the wrong paperwork. Longo said they never received that letter.
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson gave a different account. Between May 2021 and November 2022, the spokesperson said, Bittner lawfully entered the country several times with permission to stay for a temporary period.
"She chose to overstay her welcome in defiance of our nation's laws," the spokesperson said. The department added that "a pending application does not confer legal status in the United States."
Deportation without a hearing
Longo said Bittner received the maximum penalty, an administrative deportation. Under that process, DHS can send a person back to their home country without a hearing.
"This is a minor paperwork issue and it's being treated as if my wife literally crawled out a hole to get into this country," he said.
He also spoke of what the case means to him. "This will ruin my life," Longo said, adding that P'Nut had been enough for him and that losing the sanctuary would take away "the one symbol that I work for every day, and that's animal rescue."
