Overview
- Anabella Gyasi and her 4-year-old son arrived on valid tourist visas and were detained at Washington Dulles after Gyasi told officers she feared returning to Ghana and expressed an intent to seek asylum, which officials say nullified her visas and triggered expedited removal.
- U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ordered that Gyasi be removed from the airport holding room and told the government it must justify any continued detention or release the pair before nightfall.
- The ACLU of Virginia filed an emergency habeas petition describing the pair’s confinement in a converted, windowless room with one bed, a sink and a toilet and arguing that long-standing rules require release of at-risk people such as pregnant women and young children.
- Gyasi’s lawyers say she was hospitalized twice for pregnancy complications and that doctors worried she was undernourished while in custody; the Department of Homeland Security says allegations of mistreatment are false and that detainees have access to medical care and food.
- The case underscores a procedural clash at ports of entry between asylum screening, visa rules and CBP’s recent practice of holding migrants in airport rooms that lack on-site long-term medical services and could prompt further court scrutiny of those practices.