85-Year-Old French Widow Details 58-Woman Louisiana ICE Detention After Visa Overstay Arrest
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 13
85-Year-Old French Widow Details 58-Woman Louisiana ICE Detention After Visa Overstay Arrest
9 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 13
Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé, 85, said five immigration officers arrested her at her Alabama home on April 1, handcuffing her while she was in a bathrobe, slippers and pyjamas.
A missed immigration appointment triggered the arrest after her late husband's sons redirected mail during an estate dispute; DHS said she had overstayed her 90-day visa.
At the Basile, Louisiana, facility, Ross-Mahé said she was held with 58 women, mostly mothers, amid constant shouting from guards and nighttime cries from children and babies.
Her case drew French government intervention, with Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot demanding her release, while a probate judge sought an investigation into whether a stepson helped prompt her detention.
Back in Nantes, Ross-Mahé said she is coping with memory gaps and trauma symptoms, and that the experience upended her view of the US as a country that treats detainees fairly.
Was a family inheritance dispute the real reason for an 85-year-old French widow’s traumatic ICE detention in Louisiana?
As the US spends billions on massive new detention centers, is this 85-year-old’s story a preview of a harsher system?
Betrayal at the Border: The Detention of 85-Year-Old Veteran’s Widow Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé and the Impact of Trump-Era Immigration Policy on Military Families
Overview
Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé, an elderly French widow of a U.S. veteran, was arrested by federal immigration agents after her stepson, who had prior knowledge of the arrest, received confirmation and her stepson's brother changed the locks on her home. She had come to the U.S. to reunite and marry an old flame. During her detention, she found unexpected kindness from fellow detainees. Her case highlights a shift in U.S. immigration policy that removed protections for military families, leading to her detention and sparking political and diplomatic controversy over the treatment of veterans' relatives.