On Thursday evening, Hayam El Gamal and her five children were freed after spending 10 months at an ICE family detention center in Texas, following a federal judge’s order earlier that day that also barred their deportation.
ICE had sought to expel them after El Gamal’s then-husband, Mohammed Soliman, was charged in June 2025 with attempted murder for allegedly throwing molotov cocktails at Colorado protesters who had gathered in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza. The family has said it knew nothing of his actions.
Two days after their release, while back in Colorado for a required ICE check-in, El Gamal and the children were detained again, told they were being deported to Egypt and put on a plane, their lawyers said. “They were horrified,” attorney Chris Godshall-Bennett said.
Their lawyers say the re-detainment and rushed removal attempt violated the Texas judge’s orders. They rushed to federal courts in multiple jurisdictions on Saturday seeking emergency relief. In rapid rulings, the Texas judge, Fred Biery, and a federal judge in Colorado, Nina Wang, again ordered the government not to deport the family. Lawyers say the jet carrying them reversed course mid-flight and returned the family to Denver late Saturday.
“They were treated like animals. ICE took children into their custody in violation of a court order and flew them around the country for eight hours. There’s a word for that. It’s kidnapping,” Godshall-Bennett said, accusing the government of acting “entirely beyond the pale.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not confirm re-detention or address whether the Texas court order was violated. In a statement to NPR, DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis called Soliman “a terrorist responsible for an anti-Semitic firebombing in Boulder,” said the family “received full due process and was issued a final order of removal on December 29, 2025,” and criticized the judge who ordered their release. Bis added that the administration will continue efforts to deport “terrorists and their associates.”
El Gamal and her children arrived in the U.S. on tourist visas in 2022 and applied for asylum before their visas expired. Their asylum application was pending when Soliman was charged; an immigration judge later denied their request. Soliman faces federal hate crime charges and state attempted murder charges and remains in custody. The Trump administration said it would investigate whether his family knew of his alleged plans, but El Gamal and the children have not been charged in connection with the attack. El Gamal has since divorced Soliman, and the family submitted a second asylum application while detained.
In an interview from the Texas facility before their release, El Gamal’s oldest daughter, Habiba, described her mother’s declining health and the family’s desperation after 10 months in custody, saying she felt “completely broken.” She reiterated that the family had no knowledge of her father’s alleged plans and said they had renounced association with him and stopped using his last name.
Godshall-Bennett said the administration’s effort to deport the family is “not about immigration law” or visa overstays but rather “about collectively punishing this family for the actions of Mr. Soliman.” He accused the government of willfully ignoring the court’s orders and violating the Constitution. The family’s lawyers say they will continue fighting in court to secure the family’s ability to remain in the United States.