ALERT: ICE detains an 86-year-old French woman three months after her American husband died | International
In a major development, the following story has emerged from the international scene.
The story of Frenchwoman Marie-Thérèse Ross, 86, is unusual. It started with an American pilot, a young love whom she married a year ago, 60 years after meeting him. And now it has become complicated, since the octogenarian is in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) detention center, three months after becoming a widow. She was arrested on April 1, when agents broke into her home in Anniston, in the State of Alabama, where she lived with her husband. They consider that he is in the country irregularly because he did not have the green card, the permanent residence permit, which was in process. The Frenchwoman, originally from a town near Nantes, in the south of France, is locked up in a detention center in Louisiana along with 70 other arrested people, according to her family. “It seems like a scene from an American movie. Every morning I wake up saying that this cannot be true,” her son – who prefers not to make his name public – has denounced to the French newspaper Ouest France. She told this newspaper the violent conditions in which her mother was arrested, despite her age and not representing any danger: “She was handcuffed hand and foot like a dangerous criminal,” she lamented. He and his other two brothers were alerted to his arrest by neighbors. The woman has been held incommunicado for several days until the French consular services were able to contact her, visit her and inform the family. As diplomatic sources explain to this newspaper, the French consulate in New Orleans “is closely monitoring the situation of Mrs. Ross, who has been able to immediately benefit from the protection of consular services.” The consulate “is in contact with her family and maintains close communication with the US ICE authorities,” say these sources, who do not want to give personal details about the circumstances of the woman’s arrest or the reasons. Foreign Affairs works to get her out of there and repatriate her as soon as possible. More informationMarie Thérèse R. had married last year with a former colonel and pilot of the American army whom she met at the end of 1950 in Montoir-de-Bretagne, very close to the NATO base in Saint-Nazaire, where he worked as a soldier and she as a secretary. He returned to the United States and many years later, in 2010, both already married, they got back in touch. The two couples saw each other from time to time. Later the two were widowed and formalized a relationship, traveling back and forth between France and the United States. A year ago, she decided to move to Alabama, where she applied for a permanent resident card. They married in April 2025. Her husband died last January. His wife had planned, according to her son’s story, to return to France at the end of this month, but she stayed in the United States to resolve the inheritance papers first. According to the complaint, her husband’s son “had threatened her to the point of cutting off her electricity and water.” “It is urgent to get her out of the detention center and bring her to France,” explains the man, who remembers that his mother suffers from heart problems and that her health is delicate. “It won’t stand those conditions.”
The Bigger Picture:
Our editorial team will continue to monitor this situation as new details emerge.
World leaders are expected to respond to these developments in the coming days.
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Source: This article was originally published in another language by Internacional en EL PAÍS and has been translated and adapted for our global English-speaking audience. Read the original article here.