Daniela Bittner lost her squirrel to the state of New York in 2024.
Now the federal government wants to send her back to Germany.
The 30-year-old OnlyFans model, known online as the “Inked Goddess”, has been in ICE detention since immigration officers stopped her at Elmira Corning Regional Airport in New York on 16 October, according to a federal court filing released on 6 November, as reported by Creatorzine.
She and her husband, Mark Longo, were on their way to a TikTok event.
ICE says she overstayed her visa
The Department of Homeland Security says Bittner entered the US legally several times for temporary stays between May 2021 and November 2022, then remained beyond the time she was allowed.
DHS also points out that a pending immigration application does not give anyone legal status.
A wrong form and a letter that never came
Longo tells a different story. Speaking to the New York Post, he said the couple filed paperwork in 2022 to adjust her status after they married.
Officials asked for more information, he said, and the couple sent it.
The government then rejected the application because they had filed the wrong form.
According to Longo, nobody told them.
The squirrel that became a campaign issue
Bittner and Longo run an animal sanctuary in Pine City, New York.
Its most famous resident was P’Nut, a squirrel who became an internet sensation long before most people could find Pine City on a map.
In 2024, New York State wildlife officials seized P’Nut and put him down after he bit an inspector.
JD Vance, then Donald Trump’s running mate and now Vice President, seized on the case during the 2024 presidential campaign and held it up as a symbol of Democratic government overreach.
Two years on, the couple face a rather different branch of government.
Moved from New York to Texas
Bittner has not stayed anywhere for long since her arrest.
Longo says officials have held her in Syracuse and Buffalo in New York, then in facilities in Ohio and Louisiana.
Reports now place her at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas.
Four states. One form.
Why It Matters
(Editorial framing) Creators build businesses on visibility, and Bittner had more than most.
Her case shows that a large online audience counts for nothing when immigration paperwork goes wrong, and that a creator whose income, events and partnerships depend on being in the US can see all of it put on hold by a single airport stop.
Her case adds a creator to the growing list of US immigration detentions making headlines this year.
Bittner remains in custody in Texas. Whether her next stop is a courtroom or Germany may come down to one form filed in 2022.
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