Marie-Thérèse Ross, the widow of a retired U.S. military veteran, told The Associated Press she was arrested on April 1 at her home in Anniston, Alabama, after immigration officers arrived early in the morning and took her into custody over an alleged violation of the terms of her 90-day visa.

Ross said she was transferred to a federal immigration detention facility in Basile, Louisiana, where she shared a dormitory-style room with dozens of women, many of them mothers separated from their children.
“Some of them didn’t know where their children were,” Ross said in remarks published Tuesday by the AP. “I think it’s terrible for a woman not to know where her children are.”

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Ross had overstayed her visa at the time of her arrest. The department had not publicly commented further on the case as of Tuesday.

Ross returned to France after her release later in April and is recovering with relatives near Nantes. Family members told AP she continues to experience memory gaps and emotional distress following her detention and is seeking medical support for symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress.

The case drew diplomatic attention in France after Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot publicly criticized the detention, saying the methods used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were “not in line” with French standards.

Ross said she had moved to the United States after marrying William B. Ross, a retired U.S. soldier she first met while he was stationed in France during the 1950s. The couple reunited decades later after both became widowed and married last year before settling in Alabama.

William Ross died in January, after which a dispute reportedly emerged over his estate. An Alabama judge later alleged in a court order that one of Ross’s stepsons, a former Alabama State Trooper now employed by the federal government, may have used his position to facilitate her detention and called for a federal investigation.

The stepson denied involvement.
Ross described conditions inside the Louisiana detention center as orderly but said guards frequently shouted at detainees and treated them condescendingly. She also recalled hearing children and babies crying at night inside the facility.

“The prison was clean, the food was okay, but it was the way they spoke to us,” Ross told AP.
Despite the conditions, Ross said detainees showed solidarity toward her because of her age, describing how women in the facility referred to her as “Grandma” and cared for her during her stay.

Her detention comes amid heightened enforcement efforts under Trump-era immigration policies that have drawn criticism from immigrant rights groups and some foreign governments over detention practices and family separations.

Ross said the experience reshaped views she once held about the United States. She said she had previously regarded the country as a place where detainees were treated fairly and respectfully but now questioned those assumptions after witnessing the treatment of women held alongside her, many of whom were from South America.

“When I left this jail in Louisiana, I told them that if I ever had the chance to speak about them, I would do it,” Ross said.