French widow detained by ICE after GI husband’s death released, returns to France 

After being held in a U.S. immigration detention facility for the past 16 days, an elderly French woman returned home to France on Friday. 

Marie-Thérèse Ross was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Alabama on April 1 for overstaying her 90-day visa. She had previously been at a federal immigration detention center in Louisiana. 

“The main thing is that she is back in France, and that is fully satisfying to us,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told reporters Friday morning, adding that “there were acts of violence” that are concerning to the French government. 

The French government had called for Ross’s release from prison the day before her release.  

“Given her age, we really want her to get out of this situation as soon as possible,” said Rodolphe Sambou, the consul general of France in New Orleans. “We want to get her out of jail.” 

There are conflicting reports about her age, but Ross appears to be in her mid-80s. 

Ross moved to the U.S. last year after marrying William Ross, an Alabama resident and U.S. veteran. The two met when he was working at a military base in western France in the 1950s and had kept in touch for decades, The New York Times reported. William Ross died from natural causes on Jan. 24, according to his obituary. 

His death led to a dispute between Marie-Thérèse Ross and William Ross’s two sons over the inheritance of his estate, which under state law, she is entitled to half of. Tony Ross, William Ross’s younger son, testified before a probate judge arguing that Marie-Thérèse Ross did not want her inheritance and wished to move back to France. He and William Ross’s other son offered her $10,000 to waive her rights to the estate. 

Calhoun County Probate Judge Shirley A. Millwood is seeking an investigation into the behavior of the sons who she claimed rerouted Marie-Thérèse Ross’s mail, which caused her to miss an appointment on her immigration status.

Millwood claimed in her ruling that local police informed Tony Ross that they were going to arrest Marie-Thérèse Ross the day before they did it. They also texted him an hour before they detained her, she wrote. 

Tony Ross, who is also a retired Alabama state trooper and works at a courthouse in Anniston, Ala., testified that he did not order his colleagues to arrest Marie-Thérèse Ross.  

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