An octogenarian French woman, who had been arrested by immigration police in the United States and placed in a detention center in Louisiana, has returned to France this Friday, announced French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot. This French woman, who was married to an American and divorced in January, “returned to France this morning and it is a source of satisfaction for us,” said the foreign minister to the press during a visit to Montpellier.
The American Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Tuesday the arrest on April 1 of the 85-year-old woman, who entered the United States in June 2025 with a tourist visa allowing her to stay “90 days” on American soil. However, she was still in the United States “seven months later,” according to American authorities. According to testimonies from neighbors reported by her son Hervé, the 85-year-old woman, who lived in Alabama, was “handcuffed hands and feet.”
Questioned about ICE’s methods, and not specifically referring to the case of the 85-year-old woman, Jean-Noël Barrot estimated that these are “not necessarily methods that are in accordance – I am not talking specifically about the case but more generally – with those that are in force and acceptable to us.” “There have been violence that have raised our concerns. But the essential thing is that she is back in France and that fully satisfies us,” he said.
The French woman had decided to settle in the United States and to marry an American in 2025, an ex-colonel of the Air Force. They had met about sixty years earlier when she was working as a bilingual secretary on an NATO base, and they reconnected after becoming widowed. This Vietnam veteran passed away suddenly in January at the age of 85. 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 successions on April 9” before returning to France “from this judgment,” according to her son.
