Marie-Therese Ross-Mahé was taken into custody on April 1 at her Anniston residence, where federal agents pounded on the windows and doors before pushing inside, according to her account to The New York Times. She was wearing only a nightgown and robe when agents placed her in handcuffs, loaded her into an unmarked car, and drove her to jail. A Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed she was removed from the country on April 16 for violating the terms of her tourism visa, and multiple reports indicate she has since returned to France.
Her exact age remains unclear, with some sources reporting she is 85 and others 86. Ross-Mahé was initially held at a county jail in Alabama that she described as filthy, before being transferred to a detention center in Louisiana. According to Daily Mail - News, she recounted humiliating treatment, including being made to wait on hard benches and dirty beds for hours without explanation, which worsened her back pain and sciatica.
It’s an absolute torture, psychological and physical torture. I just want to get back to my wife. We’re so desperate to start a family.
Other inmates had to assist her to the bathroom and shower, she said, while also sharing hot chocolate, cookies, and hymns that moved her to tears. The Daily Mail noted it could not independently verify her account of the conditions, and a Homeland Security spokesperson denied the allegations in a statement to the Times. S.
in June 2025 under the Visa Waiver Program, which allowed a 90-day stay, after marrying retired Army Captain William 'Bill' Ross at an Alabama courthouse that April. The couple had first dated in the 1950s when he was stationed in France and she worked as a bilingual secretary at a NATO base. Ross ultimately married her friend Michèle Viaud, with whom he had two sons and lived until Viaud's death in 2018.
I don’t know how much more I can take.
Before Viaud died, the couple reconnected with Ross-Mahé and her then-husband Bernard Goix, who died of lung cancer in 2022. Ross-Mahé's green card application was still pending when Bill Ross died in January. Her family has expressed deep concern for her welfare, citing her heart and back problems.
According to Metro - Main, her son said she was handcuffed on her wrists and ankles like a dangerous criminal, and that the priority was to get her out of the detention center and repatriate her to France, fearing she would not survive a month in such conditions. The French consulate in the United States is involved in the matter. The Department of Homeland Security referred to Ross-Mahé as an 'illegal alien' and stated she had overstayed her visa by seven months.
S. is offering $2,600 and a free flight to those who self-deport. S.
citizen who was arrested by ICE in Boston last September despite having no criminal record and running a successful business. He has been held for five months in an ICE facility in El Paso, Texas, where he reported sharing a 16-by-35-foot tent with 72 others and losing weight due to harsh conditions.