Alleged Colorado attacker’s family released after nearly a year in detention

On Thursday night, Hayam El Gamal and her 5 kids have been freed after 10 months at an ICE detention middle in Texas. That morning, a Texas federal decide had ordered their launch. He had additionally instructed the federal government to not deport them.

ICE had been attempting to expel them ever since El Gamal’s husband, in a excessive profile case in June 2025, was charged with tried homicide for allegedly throwing molotov cocktails at Colorado protesters who’d gathered in help of Israeli hostages in Gaza – an assault his household mentioned it knew nothing about.

Again house in Colorado on Saturday, two days after their launch, El Gamal and her kids reported to an ICE workplace for a required check-in. There, ICE detained them once more, instructed them they have been being deported to Egypt, and rushed them onto a aircraft, their legal professionals mentioned.

“They have been horrified,” one in all their legal professionals, Chris Godshall-Bennett, mentioned.

It was all performed in obvious violation of the Texas decide’s orders. Their legal professionals rushed to 4 federal courts on Saturday to attempt to cease their deportation. In emergency rulings, the Texas decide, Fred Biery, and a second federal decide in Colorado, Nina Wang, once more ordered the federal government to not deport them.

Solely then, their legal professionals say, did the jet carrying them towards the East Coast flip round mid-flight and ship El Gamal and her 5 kids again to Denver Saturday night time.

“I am afraid to allow them to out of my sight,” Godshall-Bennett mentioned by cellphone from Colorado on Sunday, whereas El Gamal’s kids performed close by. “They have been handled like animals. ICE took kids into their custody in violation of a court docket order and flew them across the nation for eight hours. There is a phrase for that. It is kidnapping. The federal government’s habits yesterday was fully past the pale.”

In a press release to NPR on Sunday, the Division of Homeland Safety didn’t affirm that it had re-detained the household. Nor did it deal with the accusation that it had violated the Texas decide’s orders.

“Mohammed Soliman is a terrorist answerable for an anti-Semitic firebombing in Boulder. The household obtained full due course of and was issued a remaining order of elimination on December 29, 2025,” Lauren Bis, a DHS spokeswoman, mentioned within the assertion. “Regardless of receiving full due course of, this activist decide appointed by Invoice Clinton is releasing this terrorist’s household on American streets AGAIN.”

Bis additionally mentioned the Trump administration will proceed preventing to deport “terrorists and their associates.”

The household first arrived within the U.S. on vacationer visas in 2022, and utilized for asylum earlier than their visas expired, in keeping with their attorneys. Their software was pending when Soliman was charged within the assault final June. An immigration decide later denied their request for asylum.

After the assault, Soliman was charged with federal hate crimes and state tried homicide expenses. He stays in custody. The Trump administration mentioned it might examine whether or not his household knew something about his alleged plans for the assault. However El Gamal was by no means charged with any crimes associated to it. Nor have been any of their 5 kids, who vary in age from 5 to 18. El Gamal has since divorced Soliman, and the household submitted a second asylum software whereas in detention.

In a latest interview from the Texas detention middle earlier than they have been ordered launched, El Gamal’s oldest daughter, Habiba, described to NPR how her mom’s well being had deteriorated and the complete household’s rising desperation over their 10 months in custody. She referred to as herself “utterly damaged.” She reiterated that the household had no data of her father’s plans to assault the protesters in Boulder, and that they’d all renounced affiliation with him and stopped utilizing his final title.

Chris Godshall-Bennett, one in all their attorneys, instructed NPR on Sunday he believes the Trump administration’s try and deport the household is “not about immigration legislation, it is not about visa overstays. It is about collectively punishing this household for the actions of Mr. Soliman.”

He accused the Trump administration of willfully violating the Structure by disregarding the Texas decide’s orders.

“It is fairly black and white by way of criminality,” he mentioned, including: “Now we have come to anticipate this absolute lawlessness from the administration. However we must always all nonetheless be very involved about it.”

The household’s legal professionals will proceed the authorized struggle to safe their capacity to stay in the USA, Godshall-Bennett mentioned.