The arrest in a nightgown - and the dispute that made it possible

Marie Thérèse Ross Mahé is back in France. The 85 year old spent sixteen days in American immigration detention before returning to Paris on Friday. France’s Foreign Minister Jean Noël Barrot says when announcing it that there had been acts of violence in this case that concerned the French government. For him, what matters above all is that she is back home.

At Charles de Gaulle Airport, her three adult children are waiting. Their mother arrives in the clothes she wore in detention. Orange shoes, sweatpants, a gray sweater. Everything soiled, partly damaged. One of her sons describes her as physically shocked and emotionally exhausted after the days in detention.

Ross Mahé is a French citizen. She had moved to the United States last year, to Anniston in the state of Alabama. There she married Bill Ross, a former American soldier. They met in the 1950s as teenagers at a NATO base in western France. They stayed in touch for decades. After the death of their respective partners, they found each other again, visited each other in France and the United States and ultimately decided to marry.

After the wedding, Ross Mahé began the regular immigration process.

In January, Bill Ross dies unexpectedly at the age of 85. He leaves no will. What remains is a house valued at around 173,000 dollars, two cars and a bank account with about 1,500 dollars. Shortly afterward, a dispute escalates between Ross Mahé and her husband’s two sons.

On the morning of April 1, US immigration officers take the 85 year old from her home. She is wearing a nightgown, a bathrobe and underwear. She is taken to a detention center in Louisiana, hundreds of miles away.

Probate Judge Shirley A. Millwood later notes that one of the sons, Tony Ross, had apparently been informed by the authorities a day before the arrest. Less than an hour after the arrest, he receives a message confirming it. Two hours later, his brother Gary Ross drives to their father’s house and changes the locks.

Both men and the lawyer do not comment publicly.

In her ruling, Millwood writes that the investigation had found that the brothers had deliberately redirected mail to their father’s address in order to prevent Ross Mahé from receiving her correspondence. As a result, she no longer receives mail related to her immigration case. She misses a hearing with the authorities. At the same time, both sides accuse each other of hiding or removing assets.

The judge denies the sons’ request to take over administration of the estate themselves. Instead, she appoints an independent administrator and orders that the keys to the house must be handed over. She also calls on the federal government to investigate the sequence of events that led to the arrest.

ICE and the Department of Homeland Security do not initially comment on the case.

Ross Mahé remains in detention during this time. Without access to her documents, without the ability to actively pursue her case. Sixteen days later, she returns to France.

A case in which an inheritance dispute, state action and lack of oversight intertwine. And an 85 year old woman caught in the middle of it.