Pregnant asylum seeker who was detained at Dulles will return to Ghana

After 10 days spent detained at Dulles International Airport, Ghanaian asylum seeker Anabella Gyasi and her son will go back to her home country. A judge with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ordered Friday that the pregnant woman cannot stay in the airport any longer. 

“For the reasons stated from the bench, the Court finds that the welfare of the petitioners and the interests of justice are best served by allowing petitioners to return home immediately,” Judge Leonie M. Brinkema wrote after an emergency hearing the morning of May 29 in Alexandria.

The family arrived at Dulles on May 19 and was supposed to board a connecting flight to Ohio, where Gyasi’s son had an appointment at Akron Children’s Hospital. 

As he was born with disabilities, Gyasi brought him to the U.S. for a surgical consultation — an endeavor she tried two years ago but had been advised to wait until he was a little older. During both trips, she used tourist visas. 

This time, she’d expressed interest in asylum, a legal status for immigrants that fear persecution in their home countries. Typically, refugees apply for their status before entering the U.S. but asylum seekers may also indicate it once they have traveled. Her response triggered her detention.

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

Virginia’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union represented Gyasi in her effort to get out of detention and support her refugee status. She and her child were detained for over a week in a windowless room where the ACLU said they had limited access to food and hygiene routines. 

ACLU-VA Legal director Eden Heilman said that Gyasi was paying the price for her honesty. 

“If she had just gone ahead with her visa, and then, while she was in Ohop, for example, filled out her asylum stuff online, she wouldn’t be going through what she is currently going through,” she said. 

Gyasi’s ordeal is illegal, the civil rights defense firm said.

“She is just one of a growing number of pregnant people who’ve been detained in the wake of President Trump’s executive order trying to end birthright citizenship,” ACLU-VA executive director Mary Bauer said. 

Bauer added that her team is pleased Gyasi will be leaving detention, but they’re not pleased their client had to endure it. 

“While we’re relieved that Ms. Gyasi and her son will soon be free from this nightmare, no one should be subjected to the inhumane conditions they endured and we will keep fighting the Trump administration’s illegal detention of people without due process.”

Medical staff previously noted that Gyasi had high blood pressure, which can be risky during pregnancy. An emergency petition the ACLU filed with the court Thursday also indicated that medical staff had expressed concern she’d not had enough food. 

Bauer said the stress of the detention was a strain for Gyasi, noting that her “health and the viability of her pregnancy have both been endangered” by the ordeal. 

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called the allegations “false” in an email to The Mercury on Thursday. 

The ACLU attorneys don’t believe the detention facilities in airports like the ones Gyasi was held in are “equipped to safely care for people long-term.” 

Amid the new detention policy for asylum seekers, “CBP has converted nonpublic commercial rooms within airports into prison cells,” the ACLU petition stated. “These ‘hold rooms’ are equipped with nothing more than a toilet, a sink, and a bed, with no on-site medical services.” 

Despite U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement’s policy to generally not detain or deport pregnant people, they’ve deported 363 pregnant people over the past year and 498 pregnant people total were detained in that time.