The French government is putting pressure on the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the release of Marie–ThAndrAndif Rossan 86-year-old French widow arrested April 1 in Alabama after a visa that allowed her to stay in the United States for 90 days expired. According to what emerged, the woman had been in the country for around seven months.
“Given his age, we really want him to get out of this situation as soon as possible,” said Rodolphe Sambou, the French consul in New Orleans. “The French government is strongly mobilized. We want to get her out of prison.”
Marie-Thérèse had come to the US to marry a former army captain she met in the 1950s
The story of Marie–ThAndrAndif Ross he is coming under the spotlight of the international media also for his singular personal story. It was in fact love that brought the old woman to the United States a man she met in the late 1950s, when she worked as a secretary at a NATO base near Nantes. The two had lost touch for years, only to reconnect in 2010 thanks to social media. Both widowed, they decided to get married: the wedding was celebrated in April 2025, and shortly afterwards the woman moved to Alabama.
However, her husband, William Ross, a former US Army captain, died in January. A few months later, Marie-Thérèse was stopped at her home in Anniston by Ice agents, accused of having exceeded the limits of her tourist visa. After her arrest, the 86-year-old was transferred to a federal immigration detention center in Louisiana, where she remains today.
His story is part of the restrictive migration policies promoted by President Donald Trump’s administration, which in recent months have led to the arrest of thousands of people present illegally on US territory. These also include spouses of soldiers and veterans, categories who had benefited from greater tolerance in the past, as well as elderly people and people without criminal records.
The son: “Handcuffed as if she were a dangerous criminal”
One of the woman’s sons explained to the newspaper Western France that the family would not have been informed of the arrest and would only have learned the news following a visit from a diplomat. The man also denounced the manner of the arrest, claiming that the mother was handcuffed “as if she were a dangerous criminal”
Consul Sambou stated that he had visited her several times and was in constant contact with her family and the French authorities to guarantee assistance and speed up her release. For now, its fate remains dependent on the decisions of the American authorities and diplomatic pressure from Paris.