A longtime friend and White House special envoy of US President Donald Trump once asked US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain the mother of his child during a custody dispute, The New York Times reported. Paolo Zampolli, 56, a former modeling agent and the President’s Special Representative for Global Partnerships, made the request in June 2025 after he learned his Brazilian ex-girlfriend was in a Miami jail on fraud charges.Zampolli and his ex-wife, Amanda Ungaro, both wanted custody of their teenage son. Ungaro was in custody on charges related to a medical spa where she and her husband were accused of fraud and practicing medicine without a license. His last temporary visa expired in 2019 and he did not have valid immigration status at the time of his arrest.According to records obtained by the NYT, Zampolli contacted a senior ICE official, David Venturella, and said Ungaro was in the US illegally and asked if she could be placed in immigration detention. Venturella then called ICE’s Miami field office to arrange for agents to pick him up before he could be released on bail. During the call, Venturella said the matter was important “to someone close to the White House.”“Ungaro was transferred to ICE custody and eventually deported to Brazil. Sources familiar with the case told the NYT that Zampolli could face deportation despite his involvement because his immigration status was already in jeopardy. ICE can decide who to detain, especially when children are involved, but officials have not said whether its call changed when Zampoli was deported.Zampolli denied that he had asked for any specific assistance, saying that he only wanted an explanation of the process from Venturella. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement that Ungaro was detained and deported because his visa had expired and he faced fraud charges, calling any suggestion of political motives “false”. A spokesperson for First Lady Melania Trump said she had no involvement in or knowledge of Ungaro’s personal matters.Zampolli is credited with introducing Trump to Melania Knauss in 1998 and has maintained social ties with the Trump family for decades. Her name also appears in Department of Justice (DOJ) documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, although she has said that her relationship with Epstein was not close. Epstein was a convicted sex offender and pedophile who died while serving his sentence. Ungaro later asked an immigration judge to let her return to Brazil because she feared she would lose custody of her son if she remained in US custody. The judge agreed, and she and her son are negotiating custody from there.
