The ACLU of Virginia filed an emergency petition in federal court after Anabella Gyasi, a pregnant woman from Ghana, and her four‑year‑old son were held at Dulles International Airport for more than a week, the group said.
Readers searching for Dulles International Airport are seeing this case now because the petition challenges the continued custody and conditions at the airport — and because Gyasi had a scheduled medical appointment in the United States that her advocates say CBP ignored.
ACLU lawyers say Gyasi and her son, identified as G.O.O., were taken into custody when they landed at Dulles on May 19. They were placed in a windowless holding room that contained a single bed, a toilet and a sink and, the ACLU says, were not given medical screenings or treatment after detention began.
Gyasi flew from Ghana with G.O.O. after securing tourist visas that do not expire until April 2028 and scheduling an appointment for May 30, 2026, at Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio to determine whether her son is old enough for corrective surgery. G.O.O., who was born with physical disabilities that affect his hands, first came to the U.S. for care when he was two; specialists then told the family he was too young for the operation.
During the current detention, Gyasi was transported to a nearby hospital on two occasions after experiencing vaginal bleeding and lightheadedness. Hospital staff confirmed her pregnancy and high blood pressure and told ACLU attorneys they were worried she was neither eating enough in custody nor able to recover from stress, the petition says.
Conditions in custody quickly became acute. On May 23 Gyasi begged U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to let her buy food for herself and her son; officers declined, the ACLU says. G.O.O. spent much of that day crying from hunger, and Gyasi told officers she would prefer deportation to being denied food. She signed a deportation order that day and, only after doing so, was told she could have whatever food she wanted and a shower.
The friction at the heart of the petition is this: Gyasi and her son were detained at Dulles despite having valid tourist visas and a scheduled medical appointment in Ohio. The ACLU says those facts demonstrate that CBP’s custody was neither necessary nor proportionate and that the detention endangered the health of a pregnant woman and a child who needs medical evaluation.
ACLU of Virginia lawyers argue Gyasi did everything required to lawfully enter for medical care and say the agency’s response violated her rights. One ACLU representative said Gyasi traveled legally to obtain care for her son, and that the detention and treatment at Dulles were endangering both her son’s health and her own. Another lawyer for the group added that Gyasi has been following the rules she was given and accused CBP of breaking the law and placing policy before basic human dignity.
The petition lays out a short chronology — landing at Dulles on May 19, the denied food request and signed deportation order on May 23, hospital transports for bleeding and lightheadedness, and the appointment set for May 30 — and asks a federal judge to intervene immediately. The ACLU is seeking release from custody and access to medical care for both mother and child.
What happens next is a federal court decision on the emergency petition. The filing forces the central unanswered question in this case into a judge’s hands: how long did CBP intend to hold Gyasi and her son, and on what legal basis, given valid visas and an imminent medical appointment? A judge’s ruling will determine whether Gyasi can pursue the scheduled evaluation in Ohio or remain in custody while the government explains its detention decisions.
