Former Owner of P’Nut the Pet Squirrel Detained by ICE

Former owner of P'Nut, pet squirrel decapitated by NY, is detained by ICE – but husband says arrest is mistake https://t.co/UdQCdRJlc2 pic.twitter.com/mv4WjfVnz2

— New York Post (@nypost) November 11, 2026

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Bittner could be deported at any minute, Longo added, which would spell the end for their nonprofit “P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary,” where the couple keeps some 600 animals, including 100 horses.

“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,” Longo said.

“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,” he added. “This has been a nightmare to say the least.”

Bittner, who has no criminal history, was hit with the maximum penalty, an administrative deportation, which means the Department of Homeland Security can ship a person back to their home country without a hearing, Longo said.

The social media couple drove to Elmira airport in upstate New York on Oct. 16 to board a plane to attend a TikTok event, but as they got out of the car, they were swarmed by plainclothes officers who refused to identify themselves, he said.

Agents whisked her away, and she has since been moved to detention centers in Syracuse to Buffalo to Louisiana and then Texas.

Bittner also wears 24-hour contacts and was not able to get a new pair for more than two weeks, “which almost pulled her retinas off her eyeballs,” Longo said.

“This is a minor paperwork issue and it’s being treated as if my wife literally crawled out a hole to get into this country,” he said.

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Bittner was arrested on Oct. 15 at the Elmira Corning Regional Airport, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson. The agency alleges that Bittner repeatedly entered the United States illegally between May 2021 and Nov. 2022 after being granted temporary permission to enter the country.

Bittner chose to “overstay her welcome in defiance” of U.S. immigration laws, the DHS spokesperson told NewsNation Wednesday…

“To be clear, a pending application does not confer legal status in the United States,” the DHS spokesperson said…

The DHS spokesperson also called Longo’s accusations of substandard detention conditions “false.” The spokesperson said that ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens. ICE is regularly audited and inspected by external agencies to ensure that all ICE facilities comply with performance-based national detention standards.

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