Since arriving in the US, Gyasi has been hospitalised twice for pregnancy complications, including vaginal bleeding and lightheadedness.
A pregnant woman from Ghana who entered the US on a valid visa with her four-year-old son so he could receive medical care has been held for more than a week in a windowless detention room at a Washington airport, her lawyers said in court documents.
Annabella Gyasi arrived last Tuesday at Washington Dulles International Airport ahead of an appointment she had arranged for her son, who was born with malformed hands, at Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio, according to an emergency petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.
The pair had come to the US in 2024 for medical care, her lawyers say, but had returned to Ghana after being told the boy was still too young for surgery.
This time, they had booked a connecting flight for a May 30 appointment in Akron to see if he was old enough for surgery.
Instead, both were detained by US Customs and Border Protection. Gyasi, 38, is a little more than four months pregnant.
Illegally detained
“Ms. Gyasi legally travelled to the US to get necessary medical care for her son, but the illegal detention and inhumane treatment that she’s experiencing at Dulles is endangering her son’s health as well as her own,” Sophia Gregg, senior immigrants’ rights attorney at the ACLU of Virginia, said in a statement.
Immigration officials insisted she had not been mistreated.
“These allegations are false," the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “Everyone in CBP custody, including this individual, has access to appropriate care, including medical evaluation by a doctor, medication, and food."
Since arriving in the US, Gyasi has been hospitalised twice for pregnancy complications, including vaginal bleeding and lightheadedness, but was returned both times to the detention room at Dulles, the lawyers say. In one visit, doctors “expressed concern that she was not eating enough in detention and was over-stressed,” the legal group said in a statement.
Fearing for the unborn baby, Gyasi said she would rather be deported than not have enough food. She was provided food once she signed a deportation order, the lawyers say.
US District Judge Leonie Brinkema has ordered a Friday hearing for oral arguments.
