Hayam El Gamal and her five children were freed Thursday evening after nearly 10 months at an ICE family detention center in Texas, following a federal judge’s morning order to release them and bar their deportation. Two days later, lawyers say, they reported to an ICE office in Colorado for a required check-in and were detained again, told they were being deported to Egypt and rushed onto a plane.
ICE had sought to remove the family after El Gamal’s then-husband, Mohammed Soliman, was charged in June 2025 in Colorado with attempted murder for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at protesters who had gathered in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Soliman has also faced federal hate-crime charges; he remains in custody. El Gamal and her children say they knew nothing about his alleged actions. El Gamal has not been charged, nor have any of the children, who range in age from 5 to 18. The family has since divorced Soliman and submitted a second asylum application while in detention.
Attorneys for the family filed emergency motions in multiple federal courts after the reported re-detainment. In emergency rulings, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in Texas and U.S. District Judge Nina Wang in Colorado ordered the government not to deport the family. According to the family’s lawyers, the charter plane that carried them toward the East Coast turned around mid-flight and returned the family to Denver on Saturday night.
Chris Godshall-Bennett, an attorney for the family, said ICE “took children into their custody in violation of a court order and flew them around the country for eight hours,” calling the action tantamount to kidnapping and saying the family had been “treated like animals.” He said he fears for their safety and will continue to press for their release and right to remain in the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security did not confirm to NPR that it re-detained the family or that it violated the Texas judge’s orders. DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis released a statement calling Soliman “a terrorist responsible for an anti-Semitic firebombing in Boulder,” saying the family “received full due process” and noting that a final order of removal was issued for them on Dec. 29, 2025. The statement criticized the judge who ordered the family’s release and said the administration will continue to pursue removal of “terrorists and their associates.”
The family arrived in the United States on tourist visas in 2022 and applied for asylum before those visas expired, their lawyers say. Their first asylum application was pending when Soliman was charged; an immigration judge later denied the request. After Soliman’s arrest, federal authorities said they would investigate whether his relatives had any knowledge of his alleged plans.
In an interview from the Texas detention center before their release, El Gamal’s oldest daughter, Habiba, described worsening physical and mental health among family members during their nearly 10 months in custody. She told NPR the family had renounced any association with Soliman and stopped using his last name; she described herself as “completely broken.”
Family attorneys say they will continue litigating to prevent removal and to secure the family’s ability to remain in the United States, and they have accused government officials of disregarding court orders. DHS and ICE officials have defended their actions on national security and enforcement grounds. The dispute is ongoing as courts consider the emergency filings and the family pursues its asylum claims.