The urgency, for us, is to get her out of this detention center and have her repatriated to France. The son of Marie-Thérèse has been campaigning since April 1st to assist his mother. As reported by Ouest-France, this 86-year-old French woman was placed in detention in the United States last week by the American immigration police (ICE).
Found at her American home in the small town of Anniston, Alabama, she was “handcuffed at the feet and hands like a dangerous criminal,” her son claims based on testimonies from Marie-Thérèse’s neighbors in the US.
Nicknamed “The Unsinkable” by other inmates, her detention in a Louisiana center is reportedly due to her lack of a permanent visa. Marie-Thérèse had settled in the United States in April 2025 after marrying Billy, a former American soldier she met at an NATO base near Saint-Nazaire in the late 1950s.
The “two teenagers,” as Marie-Thérèse’s son calls them, reunited starting in 2010, getting closer in 2022 after the deaths of their respective spouses. Until Billy’s death in January 2026.
Eager to stay in the United States and settle a succession issue with Billy’s family (for which a trial was scheduled for April 9), Marie-Thérèse, lacking a green card, was arrested by ICE.
After almost a week in detention, her son was able to visit her during a consular visit. “She is holding up. Our mother is a fighter. She is a force of nature. She is nicknamed ‘the unsinkable’ by the other inmates,” he recounts, still speaking to Ouest-France.
The octogenarian suffers from heart problems and severe back pain, among seventy other inmates. Much to her son’s dismay: “Given her health, she will not last a month in such detention conditions.”
