According to her son, she was not going to survive a month alone in American prisons. Marie-Thérèse still lasted two weeks. This 86-year-old French woman, placed in detention by the US immigration police on April 1, is back in France.
“She returned to France this morning and it is a source of satisfaction for us,” announced French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot during a visit to Montpellier. The minister had been informed in early April, and said he was confident but “cautious” as he worked behind the scenes for her release.
Shackled like a “dangerous criminal”
Marie-Thérèse was arrested at her American home in the small town of Anniston, Alabama, at the beginning of the month. “She was handcuffed at the feet and hands like a dangerous criminal,” explained her son to Ouest-France.
He had been able to see her through a consular visit. “She’s holding up. Our mother is a fighter. She’s a force of nature. She’s nicknamed the unsinkable by the other detainees,” her son said, despite the octogenarian’s heart and back problems.
Marie-Thérèse was arrested and detained in a detention center because she did not have a permanent visa. After joining her husband Billy, a former American soldier she met at a NATO base near Saint-Nazaire in the late 1950s, before reuniting with him in 2022, she did not have the green card needed to stay after his death in January.
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