85-Year-Old French Widow Recounts 16-Day ICE Detention

ORVAULT, France — An 85-year-old French widow of a U.S. military veteran recounted her 16 days in federal immigration custody in Louisiana after an arrest in Alabama for overstaying her visa, an ordeal that drew international attention and prompted her release after less than a month.

Marie-Thérèse Ross was arrested on April 1 in her Alabama home by five officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She described the incident unfolding rapidly at 8 a.m., with officers banging on her door and windows before handcuffing her while she was still in her bathrobe, slippers, and pajamas. She was transferred two days later to a facility in Basile, Louisiana, where she was held for 16 days in a dormitory-style room with 58 other women, mostly mothers from South America. Some detainees did not know their children's whereabouts, Ross said, and at night, the silence was broken by the wailing of children and even babies. Ross, now back in France, said she was shocked by the conditions.

The detention stemmed from Ross overstaying her 90-day visa, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She had entered the U.S. to marry William B. Ross, a retired U.S. soldier she first...