Americans Ask Trump to Deport Flávio Bolsonaro Back to Brazil

It took Flávio Bolsonaro a week to discover that the United States has two governments. Donald Trump's authorized his entry. The rest of the country would like to know why.

The senator lost the presidential election on October 25. The next day, Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court, ordered him to surrender his passports in an investigation into suspected money laundering. Flávio did not comply. At 10:50 p.m. on October 27, according to Argentina's National Migration Directorate, he, his wife and his daughters crossed the Tancredo Neves bridge at Foz do Iguaçu. From there, a private jet stopped over in Ecuador and landed near Miami on the 28th. According to the New York Times, as cited by Revista Fórum, the plane was arranged by Jason Miller, a communications adviser tied to the White House and a longtime ally of the family. Abestadão has already told the story of the road to the border, in the piece about the former Mossad agent.

The Hashtag

That same week, the phrase #DeportTheBolsonaros began to circulate on X and other networks. The initial push came from Brazilian accounts. Then came the Americans, and their argument was not Brazilian democracy. It was the American taxpayer's wallet.

The loudest was Isaiah Martin, a Democratic candidate for Congress in Texas. On October 27 alone, he posted ten times about the subject. In one post, he promised that the next Democratic president should deport both Bolsonaro brothers, Flávio and Eduardo, “on day one.” In another, he suggested that Brazil come and get him “in the middle of the night, by helicopter.” And he complained about paying for the security of a man he called a fugitive.

The irony that stuck was a different one. A government that makes deporting undocumented immigrants its flagship received, with White House approval, a senator who left his country defying a court order. Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro put it in one line: “losing an election is not grounds for asylum”. The Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee noted that there is no asylum for people fleeing war in Sudan or conflict in Haiti.

The Members of Congress

On the night of October 29, 25 Democratic House members sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio a letter with 15 questions. They want to know whether the State Department, the embassy in Brasília or officials in Argentina and Ecuador helped with the trip. They also want to know when the government learned of the order to surrender the passport and on what legal basis the senator entered. The deadline for a reply is November 13. The letter was led by Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California, who co-chairs the House caucus dedicated to Brazil, and by Dina Titus of Nevada.

On Monday (November 2), Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, went beyond questions. In a letter to Rubio, he asked that the senator be returned to Brazil: “Secretary Rubio should send Bolsonaro home to face justice.”

The Posters

On Halloween weekend, a masked Brazilian woman plastered the streets and subway stations of New York with posters of Flávio's face and the word “wanted,” “for serious crimes against democracy.” In the video, she says the senator is not a political persecution victim but someone who should be deported.

Who Decides

None of these requests has the power to remove Flávio from the country. Deportation is a decision for the executive branch: the State Department, which handles visas, and the Department of Homeland Security, which handles immigration. “One cannot think that Congress has the power to deport anyone”, explained Roberto Uebel, a professor of International Relations at ESPM. What the House can do is investigate and, if the Democrats return to the majority, summon Rubio to testify.

Until then, Flávio remains in Miami, with the approval of the people who decide. His Senate term runs until January 31, 2027. In Brazil, the investigation remains open and the passport remains unsurrendered.