It’s a relief for her loved ones. This Friday during a trip to Montpellier, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced the return of an 86-year-old woman from Nantes who was detained in the United States by immigration police. “She returned to France this morning and it’s a source of satisfaction for us,” said the head of diplomacy, as the Consulate had been working for several days to repatriate the octogenarian.
“We are particularly relieved to see our mother, whom we found this morning, after she went through a necessarily extremely difficult ordeal for her,” declared Hervé, one of the sons of Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé.
At the beginning of the month, this woman was apprehended by ICE in Anniston, Alabama, where she had been living since 2025. “She was handcuffed at the feet and hands like a dangerous criminal,” explained her son to Ouest-France. The American immigration police, under fire for its sometimes violent methods, had detained the octogenarian, who did not have a green card allowing her to stay permanently in the United States.
The link between Marie-Thérèse and America began in the 1950s in Montoir-de-Bretagne near Saint-Nazaire, where she worked as a bilingual secretary on an NATO base. The young woman met Bill Ross, an American military man stationed in France with whom she had a love affair. But in 1966, General de Gaulle decided to withdraw France from the integrated command of the Atlantic organization. The following year, the NATO bases in France, including the one in Montoir-de-Bretagne, were closed and the American soldiers left the country. That was the end of the romance between Marie-Thérèse and Billy. The French woman then rebuilt her life and gave birth to three children, whom she raised in the Nantes region.
In 2010, she reunited with her childhood love and visited him with her husband several times. After his death in 2022, the former secretary joined Billy in the United States, who had also become a widower. In April 2025, she married and settled permanently with the former helicopter pilot. “They looked like two teenagers,” one of Marie-Thérèse’s sons told the regional newspaper. But their second romance lasted only a few months. At 85 years old, Billy Ross suddenly passed away last January without leaving a will.
The succession of the deceased then turned into a legal battle between his sons and Marie-Thérèse. The dispute concerned, among other things, the house that Billy Ross had owned for nearly 50 years, worth about $173,000 (€147,000) according to the New York Times. The two children also wanted to recover a bank account of about $1,500 (€1,271) as well as two cars, which they had taken the day of their father’s death. According to the law in force in Alabama, Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé would be entitled to half of the estate, while the two sons would share the other half.
The sons offered $10,000 (€8,475) to the octogenarian if she renounced her right to the inheritance, according to the New York Times. But the French woman refused to give in to the blackmail. One of the sons even went so far as to cut off her water, internet, and electricity.
The problem is that Marie-Thérèse, who has been residing in the United States for several months, has not received her green card yet, a necessary document for permanent stay in the country. Her provisional visa expires 90 days after her husband’s death. In court, she claimed that one of the sons had changed the mail delivery address, causing her to miss an appointment with immigration services.
On April 1, 2026, ICE agents entered her home and arrested Marie-Thérèse, dressed only in a nightgown and a robe. She was placed in a detention center where she was unable to call her family in France. The octogenarian spent over two weeks in the center, where she was nicknamed “Unsinkable Molly” in reference to Margaret Brown, a Titanic survivor.
According to the judge handling the case, one of Billy Ross’ sons, also employed in a court in Anniston, could have used his position to have Marie-Thérèse arrested.
