Serap Dogansoy
17 April 2026
Last updated: 17 April 2026
AA / Istanbul / Serap Dogansoy
A French national, 86, who was detained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the beginning of April, has returned to France this Friday morning, announced the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot.
“This morning, Marie-Thérèse returned to France, and this is a source of satisfaction,” said the minister during a visit to Montpellier, also mentioning “violence” that caused concerns among the French. He stated that the methods used “are not in line” with those in force in France.
The octogenarian, from the Nantes region, was arrested on April 1 by ICE, the US federal immigration police, before being placed in a detention center in Louisiana.
According to US authorities, she did not have a “green card,” a permanent residency document allowing her to stay in the United States. She was in the country following the death, in January, of her American husband.
Her arrest had attracted special attention in France, due to her age and personal situation, as she was planning to return to France at the end of April.
Living in the United States, she also planned to remarry in 2025 with a former companion, a former colonel in the US Air Force.
Her case comes in the context of increased vigilance around administrative detention practices in the United States, especially when it comes to foreign nationals in irregular situations, who are regularly placed in dedicated centers awaiting a decision on their status.
