The keys
Generated with AI
Generated with AI
The French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, announced this Friday that the octogenarian French woman who had been detained since April 1 by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) has been released and is in France.
Barrot explained, in statements to the press during a visit to Montpellier, what Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé86 years old, has been in France since this morning, something he said is a “source of satisfaction,” reports Efe.
“The essential thing is that he is back in France, and that fully satisfies us,” stressed the head of French diplomacy when asked about the conditions of his arrest and his retention in detention, which have caused controversy in France taking into account his age.
Without wanting to get into his case, Barrot recalled that he has already spoken out in the past about the actions of ICE and its methods of action that “have raised our concern,” particularly about the use of violence.
According to US authorities, Ross-Mahé had been detained because it had exceeded the 90 day period stay in the country without a visa.
From France, one of his sons complained that ICE had not informed the family of that arrest, and they only found out when French consular officials paid him a visit. Also that I would have been handcuffed and taken to a Louisiana detention center.
The elderly French woman married a former American soldier whom she had met in April 2025. in the 1950s when he was stationed at a NATO base in Saint Nazaire (northwest France), where she worked as a secretary.
When she got married last year, she left France and settled in the United States with him, but her husband mured in January 2026. From there, she intended to return to France once she had resolved the issues related to the succession, but she was detained.
The consulate and the French government mobilized when they learned of it to obtain his release.
The matter has caused controversy not only because of the woman’s age, but also because of the methods used by ICE against her, taking into account that as the wife of an American she could apply for permanent residence.
Leave a Reply