Daniela Bittner has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for nearly a month, and Mark Longo says she could be deported over what he describes as a minor immigration paperwork mistake. He says the arrest came on Oct. 16 as the couple headed to Elmira airport in upstate New York to catch a flight to a TikTok event.
That is why the case is drawing attention now: Longo says Bittner has already been moved through Syracuse, Buffalo, Louisiana and Texas, making her next step harder to track and leaving the couple waiting on a federal process that could move quickly. He says the arrest happened in plain clothes, with officers refusing to identify themselves as they swarmed the pair after they got out of the car.
Longo said the issue began with paperwork tied to Bittner’s effort to stay in the United States after he went to Bittner in Germany in 2022 to sort out her visa situation. He said they married later that year in Connecticut, then filed immigration paperwork, sent in more information when asked and later received a denial letter saying they had submitted the wrong form. He said, “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.”
The Department of Homeland Security tells a different story. A DHS spokesperson said Bittner lawfully entered the country multiple times between May 2021 and November 2022 with permission to stay for a temporary period, then overstayed in defiance of U.S. law. The DHS also said a pending application does not confer legal status in the United States, a line that undercuts Longo’s claim that the matter is only a filing error.
Longo, who described the situation as “a minor paperwork issue,” said Bittner has been in federal custody for nearly a month and has not even been able to get a new pair of her 24-hour contacts for more than two weeks. He said, “This has been a nightmare to say the least.” He added, “This will ruin my life. Like P’Nut was enough for me, and now you’re gonna take away the one symbol that I work for every day, and that’s animal rescue.”
Bittner is identified as the former owner of P’Nut, the viral internet squirrel whose death drew widespread attention, and Longo said the couple’s nonprofit, P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary, keeps some 600 animals, including 100 horses. That is why he says the detention could reach beyond one immigration case and into the work that keeps the sanctuary running. For now, the unanswered question is whether the government treats the filing as a fixable mistake or as a barrier that keeps Bittner in custody and vulnerable to removal.
