Immigration officials continue to detain a pregnant woman from Ghana and her 4-year-old son in a windowless room at Dulles International Airport, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.
As of Thursday, they had been there 9 days.
Anabella Gyasi, 38, brought her son to the U.S. on a tourist visa, planning to take him to a hospital in Ohio for treatment of an abnormality in his hands.
Customs and Border Protection officers asked Gyasi at the airport if she feared persecution in her own country, The Washington Post reported. She answered that she did, fearing her son could face harm in Ghana because of his disability.
According to court documents, Customs and Border Protection officers said Gyasi also told them she intended to seek asylum in the U.S. and remain here.
Customs and Border Protection then nullified her tourist visa, classified her as an asylum applicant and started considering her case.
The ACLU of Virginia is now involved in the case. Eden Heilman, its legal director, said Gyasi has now been denied asylum.
“They are now seeking to remove her, but again at this point, we don’t know when, and in the interim she is literally sitting in this room without access to care,” Heilman told WTOP.
Heilman said Gyasi is almost 20 weeks pregnant and has experienced symptoms “indicating that things are getting more and more complicated with her pregnancy.”
“We really are increasingly concerned about the conditions that she is being put in, and her ability to get adequate access to things like food and water and hygiene,” Heilman said.
A court hearing is set for Friday. Until then, Gyasi and her son are being held in a room that her attorneys said was converted into a holding cell with one bed, a sink and a toilet, The Washington Post reported.
Heilman said it could be decided in the court hearing if Gyasi and her son will be able to go to Ohio for the medical appointment, which is scheduled for Saturday.
“We may certainly try to request this, especially if they don’t have plans to immediately send her back,” Heilman said.
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