Pregnant woman and son from Ghana have been detained for more than a week at Dulles Airport, attorneys say

By Andy Rose, CNN

(CNN) — Anabella Gyasi and her 4-year-old son touched down at Washington Dulles International Airport more than a week ago on tourist visas. They are still there, her attorneys say, confined to “a windowless room with a single bed and toilet.”

A federal judge is set to hear arguments Friday on the future of the pregnant woman, who came to the United States from Ghana for a medical appointment for her child but also acknowledged to authorities she planned to seek asylum, according to court documents.

Her attorneys allege she is being held illegally.

“Ms. Gyasi secured the necessary visas for her son’s medical appointment, and by detaining them in dangerous conditions anyway, (Customs and Border Protection) is breaking the law and putting the Trump administration’s cruel anti-immigrant agenda before basic human dignity and the Constitution,” said attorney Dorna Maryam Movasseghi of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, which filed Gyasi’s court petition for release.

However, the Trump administration said in a court filing Thursday Gyasi “admitted under oath … her intent was not to leave the United States to return to Ghana” and as a result, she was not able to enter the US on the tourist visa.

After an immigration judge denied her asylum request Wednesday, making it virtually impossible for Gyasi and her son to remain in the country, her legal team said its main concern now is her well-being during what has turned into an indefinite layover.

Gyasi’s case is among the latest to be challenged in a federal court system struggling to keep up with the administration’s aggressive moves to maximize the number of immigrants removed from the US and increase vetting of visitors on nonimmigrant visas.

Woman and son came for a medical appointment, attorneys say

Gyasi, 38, came to the United States on a tourist visa after getting an appointment for her son at the Akron Children’s Hospital to be evaluated for possible surgery to address severe physical abnormalities affecting his fingers on both hands, the petition states. They’d traveled to the US for treatment two years earlier, but Gyasi was told her child was too young for surgery at the time. Their tourist visas expire in 2028, the petition states.

Instead of being able to board her connecting flight to Ohio, the Ghanaian citizen – who is four and a half months pregnant – and her son were “locked in a holding room” at the airport and “denied adequate food and medical care,” her petition said.

They were taken into custody after Gyasi “disclosed her fear of returning to Ghana based on the persecution she and her son faced,” when being questioned at US Customs, according to the allegations in the document.

Gyasi, who is a teacher, told authorities her mother “is a traditional priest and when she saw my child as a baby and his disability, she said I should kill him,” according to a government transcript of her statement to an immigration officer.

Gyasi “claimed a fear of returning to Ghana, received a credible fear interview from an asylum officer, and review of that negative credible fear determination by an Immigration Judge, who affirmed the asylum officer’s determination. And thus, her expedited removal order stands ready to be executed through her removal to Ghana,” the government wrote in the court filing.

The mother was hospitalized twice over the past week, initially for lightheadedness and then for vaginal bleeding, the petition said, which doctors said was due to high stress and high blood pressure. The medical staff was also “concerned that she was not eating enough and fed her. They even gave her food to take back with her,” her attorneys allege in the court document.

She told officials she and her son are not familiar with the food in the US, and it is making her sick and weak, according to a transcript in the court documents.

Four days after her arrival – and after repeated requests for more food – the petition said Gyasi agreed to be deported, “fearing that she might lose her unborn child.”

“Because I’m pregnant, I am getting weaker and weaker by the day,” she told a CBP officer, according to the official transcript.

Her son had “spent much of the day crying because of his hunger pains,” and CBP officers allegedly denied her request to purchase food, “saying she could only access the food they gave her,” the petition said.

But after she initially agreed to drop her asylum request, officers “offered to get her whatever food she wanted” and let her and her son shower for the first time since their detention,” according to her petition.

Gyasi’s attorneys said her agreement for self-deportation was prompted by “desperation for the health and well-being” of her son and her unborn child and that she did “not wish to relinquish their asylum claims.”

“These windowless rooms were never designed for long-term detention,” said Eden Heilman, Gyasi’s lead attorney with ACLU of Virginia.

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 Thursday. “The individual is currently in CBP custody at Washington Dulles International Airport and will remain in custody pending her immigration hearing.”

Gyasi planned to ask for asylum, the government alleges

Gyasi said in a statement to immigration authorities under oath she had been researching the possibility of claiming asylum “for the past 2 years” after officers examined her phone and found a history of searches on the topic, a CBP officer wrote, adding she had also considered asylum in Canada and Australia.

Her attorneys argue she is being punished for her honesty.

“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,” Heilman told CNN. “Unfortunately, because she was honest and shared her concerns, that’s what funneled her into this separate asylum-seeker category.”

The government’s response says an immigration judge has already denied Gyasi’s request for asylum, and the government “would begin the process of executing the order to remove Petitioners to Ghana,” but did not indicate how long that process might take.

District Judge Leonie Brinkema, a Clinton nominee to the federal bench, blocked the government from moving Gyasi and her son outside of her jurisdiction while the case is pending and ordered a hearing on Friday to determine the next steps.

The Trump administration has repeatedly moved other detainees hundreds of miles from where they were arrested, complicating their legal cases.

Birthright citizenship debate adds to scrutiny

Gyasi’s attorneys say CBP agents seemed to be focused on the fact she was pregnant when they first took her into custody, and they believe it is in response to President Donald Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship, under which children born in the US are automatically American citizens.

“She is just one of a number of pregnant people who’ve been detained in shocking numbers in the wake of President Trump’s executive order trying to end birthright citizenship – and it has to stop,” ACLU attorney Sophia Gregg said in a statement Wednesday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy dating back to the Obama administration says pregnant women should not be detained unless there are “extraordinary circumstances” requiring it.

That policy was rescinded a year ago by acting CBP commissioner Pete Flores, saying it and other policies regarding vulnerable detainees were “either obsolete or misaligned with current Agency guidance and immigration enforcement policies.” But the Trump administration has not changed a policy that says, “Detainees should generally not be held for longer than 72 hours in CBP hold rooms or holding facilities.”

“Ms. Gyasi is following all the rules she was given – but CBP is not,” Movasseghi said in a statement.

With any hope of staying in the US fading – and Saturday’s medical appointment for Gyasi’s son almost certainly out of reach – Heilman said the main request to the judge Friday will be to get the mother and son out of the airport, one way or another.

“The fact that there’s really no end in sight to their detention currently is the thing that we find particularly tragic and unacceptable,” Heilman said.

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CNN’s Chelsea Bailey and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.