In ICE Custody*
- Trump’s immigration agents showed no concern for whether she was innocent or 85 years old
- A tip leads to a home raid and the resident’s arrest, followed by deportation
Last April 1, a French woman, Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé, living in Alabama in the southern U.S., was awakened at 5 a.m. by people pounding on her door. These were not normal knocks, but blows and kicks against her door and windows. Frightened, Ross-Mahé woke up. She put on a robe, slipped into her slippers, and went to answer the door. As she opened it, she was forced inside by three screaming police officers, who handcuffed her and pushed her into the back seat of a vehicle. Squeezed between them, she realized they were immigration agents.
Ross-Mahé was taken to the local jail, where she spent 16 days with no contact with the outside world, in a filthy cell, from which she only got out, tied by her wrists and ankles to other inmates, to board buses and trucks without being told where she was going. Her destination was to detention centers reserved for undocumented immigrants in other cities. To her surprise, she was one of those immigrants, and her captors were ICE agents — the police who specialized in deporting foreigners whom Donald Trump considers undesirable. Ross-Mahé is 85 years old, but that did not matter. And she was in the country legally.
A year earlier, she had married a former U.S. soldier, Bill Ross, whom she had met when he was stationed at a NATO base in rural France in the 1950s. Bill returned to the U.S., but the two never stopped writing to each other. In 2024, knowing she was a widow, Bill invited her to visit him in Alabama. The two were married in a civil ceremony, and her husband filed the paperwork to legalize her status. At their age, it seemed like a dream. But he died suddenly in late 2025, and she found herself unaware of what would happen to her.
Ross-Mahé was deported back to her country, having to leave her belongings behind — her home, clothes, and furniture. It is suspected that Bill Ross’ two sons reported her to ICE. The tip worked, and the government deported her, and they took possession of everything she left behind.
The irony is that, until then, Ross-Mahé, just like the deceased, was an admirer of Trump’s policies and a fan of ICE.
*Editor's note: This article is available in its original language with a paid subscription.
- A tip leads to a home raid and the resident’s arrest, followed by deportation
Last April 1, a French woman, Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé, living in Alabama in the southern U.S., was awakened at 5 a.m. by people pounding on her door. These were not normal knocks, but blows and kicks against her door and windows. Frightened, Ross-Mahé woke up. She put on a robe, slipped into her slippers, and went to answer the door. As she opened it, she was forced inside by three screaming police officers, who handcuffed her and pushed her into the back seat of a vehicle. Squeezed between them, she realized they were immigration agents.
Ross-Mahé was taken to the local jail, where she spent 16 days with no contact with the outside world, in a filthy cell, from which she only got out, tied by her wrists and ankles to other inmates, to board buses and trucks without being told where she was going. Her destination was to detention centers reserved for undocumented immigrants in other cities. To her surprise, she was one of those immigrants, and her captors were ICE agents — the police who specialized in deporting foreigners whom Donald Trump considers undesirable. Ross-Mahé is 85 years old, but that did not matter. And she was in the country legally.
A year earlier, she had married a former U.S. soldier, Bill Ross, whom she had met when he was stationed at a NATO base in rural France in the 1950s. Bill returned to the U.S., but the two never stopped writing to each other. In 2024, knowing she was a widow, Bill invited her to visit him in Alabama. The two were married in a civil ceremony, and her husband filed the paperwork to legalize her status. At their age, it seemed like a dream. But he died suddenly in late 2025, and she found herself unaware of what would happen to her.
Ross-Mahé was deported back to her country, having to leave her belongings behind — her home, clothes, and furniture. It is suspected that Bill Ross’ two sons reported her to ICE. The tip worked, and the government deported her, and they took possession of everything she left behind.
The irony is that, until then, Ross-Mahé, just like the deceased, was an admirer of Trump’s policies and a fan of ICE.
*Editor's note: This article is available in its original language with a paid subscription.
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