Immigration authorities have detained a pregnant woman and her 4-year-old son at Washington Dulles International Airport for over a week, after the pair arrived from Ghana on a tourist visa seeking medical treatment and were then taken into custody, their lawyers allege in a court filing.
Anabella Gyasi, 38, arrived in the United States on May 19 after securing a visa and an appointment for her son at Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio, where she hoped her son would get care for a physical abnormality affecting his hands, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers asked her if she feared persecution in her home country, said Eden Heilman, the legal director of the organization’s Virginia branch. Gyasi answered that she did because of her son’s disability. CBP then classified her as an asylum applicant and moved to nullify her tourist visa, Heilman said.
If she hadn’t answered that question honestly, she would have been well on her way to her child’s doctor’s appointment,” Heilman said.
The State Department last month instructed diplomatic missions to ask applicants for nonimmigrant visas if they fear returning home to their country, and to refuse travel documents for those who say yes. It was unclear whether that policy was related to Gyasi’s detention.
CBP is holding Gyasi and her son in a windowless holding room, according to the ACLU. The pair’s attorneys alleged that Gyasi and her son are being held in a work area converted into a cell with a single bed, a toilet and a sink.
Gyasi has been taken to a hospital twice for medical issues while in custody, the court filing states. On Friday, Gyasi felt lightheaded and was examined at a local hospital, where medical staff expressed concern that she was not being fed enough, according to the court filing.
The ACLU filed an emergency petition in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Tuesday calling for Gyasi and her son to be released so they can seek medical care.
Gyasi secured the necessary visas for her son’s medical appointment, and by detaining them in dangerous conditions anyway, CBP is breaking the law and putting the Trump administration’s cruel anti-immigrant agenda before basic human dignity and the Constitution,” ACLU attorney Dorna Maryam Movasseghi said in a news release.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson denied the ACLU’s allegations in a statement to The Washington Post.
Everyone in CBP custody, including this individual, has access to appropriate care, including medical evaluation by a doctor, medication, and food,” the department said. “The individual is currently in CBP custody at Washington Dulles International Airport and will remain in custody pending her immigration hearing.”
The ACLU alleges that Gyasi told CBP officers she preferred to be deported because she fears remaining in detention could result in her losing her unborn child. After agreeing to leave voluntarily, CBP officers allowed her to request additional food and let her shower for the first time since she was detained, the lawyers claim.
CBP has put Gyasi in an impossible position: either risk her own and the life of her unborn child to improve her young son’s life, or return home to ensure safe conditions for her pregnancy but unsafe conditions for her son,” Heilman said in the organization’s news release.
Tens of thousands of immigrants have abandoned asylum claims and agreed to voluntarily depart the U.S. rather than face long stints in immigration detention, The Washington Post has reported.
On Monday, Gyasi backtracked and said she did not wish to self-deport, according to Heilman. That day, Gyasi experienced vaginal bleeding and was again taken to a hospital, where doctors said her condition was caused by high stress, the court filing states.
A judge on Wednesday ordered federal officials to show a legal basis for Gyasi’s detention by 9 a.m. Thursday.
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