ICE detains wife of Peanut the squirrel's owner, German national faces deportation over a form error missed while New York seized and killed the animal

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New York state officials antagonized a terrified squirrel, says Greg Gutfeld foxnews.com

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Baby Peanut the squirrel foxnews.com

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Immigration officers arrested Daniela Bittner in mid-October at a small airport near New York's border with Pennsylvania, just as she and her husband were leaving for a TikTok event. Bittner, a German national married for four years to Mark Longo, has since been transferred from Syracuse to Buffalo to Louisiana and is now held in Texas. Longo is the man whose pet squirrel, Peanut, was seized and euthanized by New York wildlife officials in 2024, in a case that drew nationwide outrage.

According to the couple, the trouble began with a form. An error on one of Bittner's immigration filings went unnoticed during the same stretch in which the two were dealing with the seizure and death of Peanut. Longo says the Department of Homeland Security asked for additional information, which the couple provided, and that a denial letter followed — citing the wrong filing — which never reached them. DHS describes the case differently: Bittner lawfully entered the United States several times between May 2021 and November 2022, each stay temporary, and then "chose to overstay her welcome in defiance of our nation's laws." "A pending application does not confer legal status in the United States," the department told the New York Post. Longo says his wife has no criminal record, was hit with the maximum penalty, and could face deportation without a hearing. "This is a minor paperwork issue and it's being treated as if my wife literally crawled out of a hole to get into this country," he told the Post.

The couple married in 2022, shortly after Bittner had returned to Germany to resolve a visa situation. Peanut, whom Longo rescued at five weeks old after the animal's mother was struck by a car, made the family famous; the seizure that killed the squirrel made them a national story, complete with a news conference in Albany and a planned lawsuit against New York state. Bittner is now the caretaker of 600 animals rescued from neglect at the couple's nonprofit sanctuary, and Longo says that if she is deported the sanctuary closes and all 600 animals will need new homes. "All we wanted was to be left alone," he told the Post. "We finally moved on from the tragic murder of P'Nut, now to this."

Longo has described the conditions his wife has faced in federal custody as "deplorable," according to the Associated Press. The animals are still at the sanctuary. Bittner is in Texas.