NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The French government is pressing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to release the 85-year-old French widow of a military veteran from immigration custody after she was detained earlier this month.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Marie-Therese Ross in Alabama on April 1 after she overstayed her 90-day visa, according to DHS. Ross is now being held at a federal immigration detention facility in Louisiana.
Ross is among the thousands of people targeted by the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda that has detained the spouses of U.S. soldiers and military veterans who previously received greater leniency under scrapped policies.
Rodolphe Sambou, Consul General of France in New Orleans, told the AP that the French government has “fully mobilized” to push for her release. He said he has visited her in detention twice so far.
“Given her age, we really want her to get out of this situation as soon as possible,” Sambou said. “We want to get her out of jail.”
Sambou said that he has been communicating frequently with Ross’ family and French officials in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Paris to try and coordinate Ross’ release and ensure she has access to sufficient food and health care. He said the French government has also contacted DHS.
He declined to comment on her legal status or other details of her case.
Ross married Alabama resident William Ross in April last year, Calhoun County marriage records show. Ross died in January, according to an obituary from his family, which says he was a former captain in the U.S. Army.
A lawyer who is representing Ross in a separate legal matter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ross' family did not respond to requests for comment.
Associated Press writer Samuel Petrequin contributed reporting from France.
Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
This story has been corrected to say that Marie-Therese Ross is 85, not 86.
FILE - A federal agent wears an Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge, June 10, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
Storms barreling across the heart of the United States continued to threaten rain and pose flooding risks Thursday after causing at least one death when a man apparently was struck by lightning in Wisconsin.
Police in Waukesha, west of Milwaukee, said the “area was experiencing heavy rainfall accompanied by significant thunder and lightning” when someone reported seeing the man on the ground Wednesday evening.
“Preliminary information indicates the individual was struck by lightning while walking through the parking lot during the storm,” police said.
A weather pattern combining very moist air with a strong jet stream has stretched from as far south as central Texas into the Midwest and east across the Great Lakes. From Monday through Wednesday, the National Weather Service received more than 1,100 reports of large hail, winds above 60 mph (96 kph) and tornadoes as part of the storm system, said Bill Bunting, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center.
Teams were out Thursday surveying damage to determine the exact number of tornadoes, Bunting said.
The storms have rumbled across a number of states for the better part of this week and could continue into the early weekend.
“There's been a tremendous amount of lightning with these storms over the last few days,” said Mark Gehring, a meteorologist with the weather service in Milwaukee.
“We've had the temperature and humidity of summer and it's lasting an entire week — in mid-April,” he added. “In addition to a very stormy pattern, nearly every day we're having heavy rain. We've had tornadoes nearly every day, very large hail.”
Five tornadoes have been confirmed across southern and central Wisconsin, according to Gehring.
“But there are more out there. We are going out to do storm surveys,” he said Thursday, adding that storms expected Friday evening could be severe.
In addition to lightning, hail and tornadoes, the storms have brought rain — lots of it, with scores of flood warnings and flood watches issued by the weather service over multiple states.
Crews were hurriedly pumping water from a dam in Cheboygan, Michigan, this week, even removing floodgates to relieve pressure. Residents and businesses in the city were told Monday to prepare a “go bag” containing medications, documents and other important items, monitor official updates and “be ready to act" because of the threat of flooding.
Sandbags were used to fill a breach discovered Wednesday at the Alverno Dam in Cheboygan County, according to state officials.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also has declared a state of emergency in more than three dozen counties impacted by the storms and flooding.
In northern Michigan, Bellaire, population 1,000, said Thursday that its wastewater treatment system was being overwhelmed, forcing the release of partially treated waste into area swamps. The village urged residents to reduce home water use.
Carl Johnson, 59, has a home on the rapidly rising Muskegon River in western Michigan. He went on Facebook to tell people that his boats are ready if someone needs help.
“It’s out of the banks everywhere. It’s really bad,” he told The Associated Press. “It’s not supposed to crest until Saturday.”
People living in the river’s flood plain below the Croton Dam in Newaygo County were ordered to evacuate. It wasn’t immediately known how many people were affected.
The Wisconsin River is at major flood stage in Portage, Wisconsin, and is forecast to reach or surpass the 20.7-foot (6.3-meter) record sometime Friday morning, meteorologist Gehring said.
“Right now, it's at 19.9 feet (6 meters), not that far off,” he said. “In Portage, there's a large area of low-land flooding. Many roads are flooded. There's a levee there. It's important that the levee holds.”
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers declared a state of emergency earlier this week.
Cars were stranded Wednesday night in high floodwater on a highway in Milwaukee and the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office posted online to urge people not to drive in southeast Wisconsin.
But at least in Wisconsin, a respite could be near.
“We have one more severe, heavy rain event coming this way before we get a good break,” Gehring said. “That's going to be on Friday evening. That's going to be the last gasp of severe rain.”
Bunting said the storm system will continue to move north and east and likely will take three to four days to finally move off the U.S. east coast.
“Probably, the most concerning day in terms of intense thunderstorm potential and tornadoes is Friday, extending from northern Oklahoma into central Wisconsin and far eastern Illinois,” he said.
Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan. White reported from Detroit.
Jim Harbors helps clear downed trees that were toppled during severe overnight storms, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in Deforest, Wis. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
Jim Harbors helps clear downed trees that were toppled during severe overnight storms, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in Deforest, Wis. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
A team of assorted municipality workers clear debris from the Boardman River Weir that was blocking the flow of the flooded Boardman/Ottaway River on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, in downtown Traverse City, Mich. (Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle via AP)
City Streets Department workers inspect a sinkhole that swallowed a street light and parts of a sidewalk along the surging Boardman/Ottaway River on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, in downtown Traverse City, Mich. (Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle via AP)
A team from the Michigan Department of Transportation inspects a washed-out bridge on M-119 between Division and Island View Roads, south of Cross Village, Mich., in Emmett County on Monday, April 13, 2026. (Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle via AP)
