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An 86-year-old French woman, who had been living in the United States for over a year, was arrested last April by the American immigration police. On Thursday, May 7, she recounts the brutal intervention she experienced as well as the arduous conditions of her detention.
With courage, but still a bit fragile, 86-year-old Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé shares her story of one of the worst moments of her life when she was arrested by the American immigration police. She describes the aggressive manner in which they approached her and their demand to see her identification papers. She was then handcuffed and taken to the Birmingham prison in Alabama before being transferred to a detention center in Louisiana, 700 kilometers away from her home.
She vividly remembers being placed in a unit with 58 other women, feeling like just a number among many, experiencing a lack of compassion and facing brutality during her time there. She recalls the orange prison jumpsuit she had to wear and the 17 days of imprisonment without being able to reach her children.
Prior to this ordeal, there was a love story. Marie-Thérèse had married William Ross, an American soldier, in 2025 and decided to move to the United States. After her husband’s death in January, her visa expired. She was reported by one of her stepsons in an attempt to claim her inheritance. Now, she is trying to move forward alongside her children, cherishing memories of her time in America and her late husband while trying to forget the trauma of being detained.
