The guards could not speak without yelling': life as an 85-year-old ICE detainee

"The wailing at the Louisiana immigration detention facility began at night, Marie-Therese Ross-Mahe remembered, back at home in France. Children crying, and even babies. The 85-year-old's detention last month as part of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown made international headlines. Now, nearly a month after her release, she was ready to talk about it and the late-in-life love story that had brought her to the US."

"Ross-Mahe crossed the Atlantic last year to be with her 1950s sweetheart, William B Ross. They had met when he was a US soldier in France and she was a secretary at Nato. After we both became widowed, we decided to spend holidays together,'' she said. Then feelings came back, and we decided to marry.'' They did so in April 2025, and Ross-Mahe moved in with her husband in Anniston, Alabama."

"Her arrest on 1 April for allegedly overstaying her 90-day visa unfolded so quickly that she barely understood what was happening, she said. Five men, who identified themselves as immigration officers, banged on her door and windows at 8am before handcuffing her and placing her in a vehicle. She was still wearing her bathrobe, slippers and pyjamas. She was transferred two days later to a facility in Basile, Louisiana, where she was held with 58 other women, mostly mothers."

"Recovering from her ordeal in Nantes with her family, Ross-Mahe's abiding memories are of strict rules, constant shouting from guards and condescending treatment. The prison was clean, the food was OK, but it was the way they spoke to us. The guards could n"

An 85-year-old French woman described her detention at a Louisiana immigration facility after an alleged immigration-related appointment was missed. She said the arrest began early in the morning with multiple men identifying themselves as immigration officers, banging on her door and windows, handcuffing her, and transferring her to a facility in Basile, Louisiana. She reported being held with dozens of women, many of them mothers, and said some did not know where their children were. She said the facility was clean and the food was acceptable, but she focused on strict rules, constant shouting, and condescending treatment. She also recounted a late-in-life relationship and marriage that brought her to the United States.

Read at www.theguardian.com