Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he could adopt reciprocal measures after the United States expelled a Brazilian federal police attache indirectly involved in the arrest of Brazil's former intelligence chief Alexandre Ramagem by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on April 13, g1 reported on April 21. On April 20, the U.S. government said, "no foreigner can manipulate our immigration system to circumvent formal extradition requests and extend political persecution" into the U.S. territory.

Brazil had requested Ramagem's extradition, while he had requested asylum in the United States. Ramagem is an ally of Bolsonaro. He became a federal deputy in 2023 but lost his mandate in 2025 after leaving the country clandestinely in 2025 before the Supreme Federal Court convicted him for involvement in a 2022 attempted coup. The friction follows an improvement in bilateral ties after Trump and Lula met at the United Nations in September 2025. Lula's popularity improved in 2025 after he adopted a confrontational rhetoric vis-a-vis U.S. 50% tariffs.