An 86-year-old woman was arrested by US immigration police in early April.
Published on: April 17, 2026, at 12:59 Updated on: April 17, 2026, at 13:12
Reading Time: 2 minutes
A member of the immigration police at the Newark Airport (United States) on March 23, 2026. (KENA BETANCUR / AFP)
She was arrested on April 1st by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and held in a detention center in Louisiana. An 86-year-old French woman from Orvault, near Nantes, has finally returned to France on Friday, April 17, according to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot. “It’s a source of satisfaction for us,” the minister told the press during a visit to Montpellier, confirming a report from Ouest-France.
The US Department of Homeland Security confirmed to AFP on Tuesday the apprehension of the octogenarian, who was married to an American until his death in January. She entered the US in June 2025 with a tourist visa allowing her to stay for “ninety days” in the US. However, she was still in the US “seven months later,” according to US authorities.
According to testimonies from neighbors reported by her son Hervé, the 85-year-old woman, who resided in Alabama, was arrested “handcuffed feet and hands.” “There were violent incidents that have raised our concerns. But the most important thing is that she is back in France and that fully satisfies us,” said Jean-Noël Barrot.
The French woman had decided to settle in the US and marry an American in 2025, a former colonel in the Air Force. They had met sixty years earlier when she worked as a bilingual secretary at an NATO base, and they reconnected after their spouses passed away. This Vietnam veteran passed away suddenly in January at the age of 85. According to her son, the octogenarian, who hoped for the “officialization” of her green card and held a social security card, “was waiting for the court’s decision on her estate on April 9” before returning to France “following this judgment.”
