Pregnant asylum seeker detained, held with son at Dulles airport for the past week

Pregnant Ghanaian woman Anabella Gyasi and her disabled child have spent the past week detained at Dulles International Airport in a windowless room without adequate food, hygiene or medical care, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, claims federal immigration authorities say are false. An emergency hearing is set to take place Friday morning in an Alexandria federal court. 

Gyasi, 39, was seeking specialized medical care for her son in the United States and was supposed to take her son to a medical appointment in Ohio to see if he qualified for a surgery. Instead of boarding her connecting flight at Dulles in Northern Virginia, she has been kept at the airport since May 19. ACLU attorneys filed an emergency petition on her behalf Wednesday. 

Gyasi had first come to America with a tourist visa two years ago seeking surgery for her son, who was born with disabilities that impact the use of his hands. At the time he’d been deemed too young for corrective surgery. Earlier this month, she’d scheduled an appointment at Akron Children’s Hospital for a new consultation on May 30. 

Since Gyasi has a visa, she went through a screening process at Dulles, including a question about whether she had fears of persecution should she return to her country. The question is asked when screening foreign travelers to determine if they’re seeking asylum, a status that allows refugees to remain in the country while establishing their case.

She answered yes, which kickstarted the detainment.

“If she had just gone ahead with her visa, and then, while she was in Ohio, for example, filled out her asylum stuff online, she wouldn’t be going through what she is currently going through,” said ACLU-VA legal director Eden Heilman. “She was honest and that’s what triggered this situation.” 

By May 22, Gyasi was temporarily transported to a nearby hospital after complaints of lightheadedness. Medical staff confirmed her pregnancy and that she had high blood pressure. The ACLU court filing indicates hospital staff expressed concern she had not had enough food so they gave her a meal. 

The filing claims Gyasi worried about her risk of miscarriage and relayed that if officers were not going to feed her and her son, she would rather be deported. On May 24, officers arranged for her to sign for deportation, which she did. It was then she and her son were granted showers and food was brought to them. 

“(The signature) was done under duress,” Heilman said. 

She added that Gyasi does intend to seek asylum, so aside from getting her out of detention, ACLU plans to support her journey to that status. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security called the allegations from Gyasi “false.”

“Everyone in CBP custody, including this individual, has access to appropriate care, including medical evaluation by a doctor, medication, and food.,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “The individual is currently in CBP custody at Washington Dulles International Airport and will remain in custody pending her immigration hearing.”

Gyasi’s week of detention and legal limbo is part of a concerning trend, Heilman said, as President Donald Trump’s administration has eyed an end to birthright citizenship for children of immigrants who are born in America. 

For roughly 100 years, the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment has been interpreted to grant citizenship to people born on U.S. soil. 

Trump signed an executive order to end the practice on his first day of his second term in office. That order faced a legal challenge, which will soon be weighed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Though the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement has a policy to generally not detain or deport pregnant or nursing people, 363 such people have been deported over the past year and 498 pregnant people total were detained in that time. 

As pregnancy can heighten the risk for medical emergencies, it’s not recommended for gestating people to fly beyond 28 weeks of pregnancy, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. 

Earlier this year a pregnant immigrant was deported through the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport while near term in her pregnancy and amid reported medical distress. 

In cases like Gyasi’s, Heilman said it seems “clear that the administration is doing their best to keep pregnant people from going beyond ports of entry if they are asylum seekers.”