Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s (D) Senate campaign has some explaining to do about his wife Gisele’s contradictory story of when she arrived in the United States as an illegal alien.
The Fettermans have told the media that Gisele illegally immigrated to the U.S. at the age of seven, yet new details have emerged that contradict those claims. According to a number of prior statements and reports, Gisele illegally immigrated to the U.S. after the age of seven.
The contradictory evidence of Gisele’s illegal immigration timeline is relevant as she has become a lead political operative for her husband’s Pennsylvania Senate campaign. Gisele has given victory speeches, taken a congratulatory call from President Joe Biden, and has spun political narratives to the establishment media on Fetterman’s stroke last May.
The Fettermans have stated and confirmed multiple times that Gisele illegally immigrated to the U.S. at seven years old, despite evidence to the contrary.
“My wife, Gisele, was a DREAMer who came to America when she was 7, fleeing violence in Brazil with her family. I would not have my family if it weren’t for immigration,” John Fetterman states on his campaign website.
According to Gisele’s bio on Fetterman’s campaign website, “Gisele’s mother took her and her younger brother to the United States when she was seven, all of them undocumented immigrants”:
Gisele Barreto Fetterman, the Second Lady of Pennsylvania (or as she prefers, “SLOP”) is a trailblazer in her own right. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Gisele’s mother took her and her younger brother to the United States when she was seven, all of them undocumented immigrants. They lived in a one-room apartment in New York City and were teaching themselves English while her mother worked cleaning hotels and houses. After 15 years of living in the shadows, Gisele received her green card in 2004 and became a United States citizen in 2009.
Fetterman posted on Twitter that Gisele had illegally immigrated to the U.S. at seven years old, writing “Immigration is personal for me. [Gisele Fetterman] lived in America undocumented for years after fleeing violence in Brazil when she was 7.”
But contradictory evidence suggests the Fettermans have been dishonest about Gisele’s illegal immigration story throughout the Senate campaign. According to their own admission, Gisele illegally immigrated to the U.S. at an age older than seven, potentially at ages eight, nine, or ten.
AL DIA, a Spanish Philadelphia media company, reported Gisele illegally immigrated to the U.S. at the age of eight:
Gisele Barreto Fetterman said her immigrant experience was an adventure (or at least her mother strived to make it feel that way). She recalled the moment when her life forever changed. When Gisele was eight years old, her mother one day came home with two suitcases — one for her and one for her brother. ‘Pack your favorite things because we’re going on a trip,’ her mother told her. She remembers packing a doll and a journal.
The claim of illegally immigrating at eight-years-old is contradicted by a 2015 Fetterman campaign ad when Fetterman claimed that Gisele arrived illegally in the U.S. at age nine:
Further contradicting the claim, Gisele posted on Twitter in 2022 that she was fearing for her life in her home country of Brazil at the age of ten, suggesting she had not yet illegally arrived in the U.S.
“I can’t emphasize enough what a life in limbo feels like to a young person. Your very existence in the country that you call home. At 10 years of age, I was scared of every knock at my door,” she said:
The contradictory timeline of Gisele’s illegal immigration story coincides with Gisele’s alarming family background in Brazil.
According to the Daily Mail, Gisele’s uncle, Temilson Antonio Barreto de Resende, was an expert wiretapper who spent three years and four months in prison in 2002. He was accused of wiretapping phone calls of Brazil’s then-president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso. In 1999, Gisele’s uncle insisted he was only an intelligence analyst and not a spy. He reportedly died in 2020 from coronavirus.
“He was my favorite person in the entire world,” Gisele tweeted about his death. “I only have his voicemails now and I listen to them daily, and weep.”
The trial of Gisele’s uncle predates her illegally immigrating to the U.S. from Brazil. Landing in New York with her mother and brother, the Daily Mail does not say exactly how old she was.
The Fetterman campaign did not respond to the Daily Mail‘s request for comment.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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