They arrived on a tourist visa. A pregnant mother. Her 4-year-old son. A medical appointment at an Ohio hospital to evaluate the boy’s severely deformed fingers. They had come to America for help.
Instead, they were locked in a windowless room at Dulles International Airport for more than a week. One bed. One toilet. No sunlight and no end in sight.
A federal judge on Friday told the US government that Anabella Gyasi, 38, who is four and a half months pregnant, and her son must be released before the end of the day.
“She cannot spend tonight at Dulles,” said US District Judge Leonie Brinkema. “One way or another, we’re going to get her out.”
The Nightmare Inside the Airport
Gyasi and her son touched down at Dulles more than a week ago. They never made their connecting flight to Ohio. Instead, they were taken into custody after Gyasi disclosed to customs officers that she feared returning to Ghana.
“If she did not disclose the fear that she was having about persecution in her country, she could have still entered on the tourist visas,” said Eden Heilman, Gyasi’s lead attorney with the ACLU of Virginia. “Unfortunately, because she was honest and shared her concerns, that’s what funneled her into this separate asylum-seeker category.”
Gyasi told authorities that her mother, a traditional priest, saw the child’s disability as a curse and said she should kill him. The mother fled with her son to protect him. Now, she says, she is being punished for telling the truth.
The Conditions
Her attorneys describe the holding room as “a windowless room with a single bed and toilet.” Gyasi and her 4-year-old son shared that space. For eight days.
The mother was hospitalized twice — first for lightheadedness, then for vaginal bleeding. Doctors attributed it to high stress and high blood pressure. Medical staff was concerned she was not eating enough. They fed her. They gave her food to take back with her.
She told officials she and her son are not familiar with the food in the US. It was making her sick and weak.
Her son spent much of the day crying because of his hunger pains, according to court documents. When she requested to purchase food, CBP officers allegedly denied her request, saying she could only access the food they gave her.
Four days after her arrival, fearing she might lose her unborn child, Gyasi agreed to be deported. “Because I’m pregnant, I am getting weaker and weaker by the day,” she told an officer.
Only after she agreed to drop her asylum request did officers offer to get her whatever food she wanted and allow her and her son to shower for the first time since their detention.
The Government’s Response
The Department of Homeland Security said the allegations of mistreatment “are false.”
“Everyone in CBP custody, including this individual, has access to appropriate care, including medical evaluation by a doctor, medication, and food,” a DHS spokesperson told CNN.
But an immigration judge had already denied Gyasi’s asylum request on Wednesday, making it virtually impossible for her and her son to remain in the country. The government wrote that her tourist visa was not valid because Gyasi “admitted under oath … her intent was not to leave the United States to return to Ghana.”
Her attorneys argue she is being punished for her honesty. The government argues she broke the terms of her visa.
The Judge’s Intervention
At a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, Judge Brinkema made her position unmistakable. Gyasi and her son could leave Virginia and be deported only if the government could guarantee she would no longer be held at Dulles while that deportation was processed.
She gave the administration a 2 p.m. deadline to show they had arranged for Gyasi and her son to have a nonstop flight back to Ghana before the end of the day.
“We were very pleased that the judge recognized one fundamental principle,” said Mary Bauer of the ACLU of Virginia, “which is that human beings should not be detained under the conditions our client was being detained at Dulles Airport in a windowless room without access to appropriate food or medical care.”
Although Gyasi’s hopes that she and her son could remain in the United States were dashed in court, the judge insisted on one thing: no more nights in a windowless room.
“She’s not gonna spend tonight at Dulles,” Brinkema reiterated.
The Bottom Line
Anabella Gyasi, a pregnant mother from Ghana, and her 4-year-old son were detained at Dulles International Airport for more than a week after she disclosed her fear of returning home. They were held in a windowless room with one bed and one toilet. She was hospitalized twice for stress-related complications.
