Judge orders pregnant Ghanaian woman, son out of Dulles detention

A federal judge ordered that Anabella Gyasi and her 4-year-old son not spend another night in detention at Washington Dulles International Airport, ending 10 days in a windowless room that became a test case for how U.S. authorities handle pregnant migrants and children caught in legal limbo. Gyasi, 38, is almost 20 weeks pregnant.

Gyasi and her son, identified in filings as G.O.O., arrived at Dulles on May 19 on valid tourist visas, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia said. The family had come from Ghana so the boy could be evaluated at Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio for physical abnormalities affecting both hands, and they had previously traveled to the United States in 2024 for a specialist visit, when doctors said he was too young for surgery.

The ACLU said Customs and Border Protection officers questioned Gyasi about the purpose of the trip and about fear of returning to Ghana, then canceled her tourist visa and treated her as an asylum applicant. The group filed Gyasi v. Scott on May 26 in federal court in Alexandria, arguing that the detention violated Gyasi’s Fifth Amendment rights and other law.

For more than a week, mother and child were held in a room with no windows, a single bed, a toilet and a sink. The ACLU said they remained there around the clock and were not given adequate food, hygiene or medical care. Gyasi twice had to be taken to a nearby hospital after vaginal bleeding and lightheadedness. Hospital staff confirmed her pregnancy and high blood pressure and expressed concern that she was not eating enough and was under stress.

The filing said Gyasi told officers she would rather be deported than denied food, and that after she signed a deportation order she was told she could receive food and a shower. The emergency petition named CBP’s actions as the catalyst for the detention and said recent policy changes requiring physical custody of asylum-seeking people at ports of entry helped keep the family at the airport.

The case landed as advocates argued that long-standing protections for vulnerable detainees were being bypassed. ABC News reported that the petition cited regulations and a court settlement requiring children to be transferred out of detention within 72 hours. The ACLU also pointed to a policy announced last month requiring the physical custody of asylum-seeking people entering at ports of entry.

Mary Bauer, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, said the court intervened Friday after Gyasi’s health and pregnancy had been endangered for more than a week. Sophia Gregg, an ACLU attorney, said the detention endangered both Gyasi and her unborn child. The ruling put a sharp focus on a system in which a pregnant woman seeking medical care for her son spent 10 days confined at a U.S. airport before a judge ordered her release.