A federal judge in Texas on Thursday ordered the release of the family of a man charged in a Boulder firebomb attack, ending their nearly 10-month detention in a family immigration facility.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered Hayam El Gamal and her five children be allowed to return to their home in Colorado Springs as their immigration proceedings continue. El Gamal and her 18-year-old daughter, Habiba, must wear electronic monitors and the family must comply with any “reasonable” reporting requirements to immigration authorities.
Biery’s order came after a last-minute attempt by immigration authorities to have the family deported before today’s hearing.
El Gamal and her five children, ages 5 to 18, have been detained in Dilley Immigration Processing Center since last June, when the father Mohamed Sabry Soliman was charged with murder and a hate crime, among other charges, in the attack on mostly Jewish protesters. The family immigrated to the U.S. from Egypt and had a pending asylum case. They were working and going to school in Colorado Springs, where they have lived since 2022.
The family has repeatedly said they had no knowledge of the attack and the FBI has also said investigators found no evidence they were involved. They are believed to be the longest-held family at the facility since Donald Trump’s second presidential term.
The family’s release date was not immediately known. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return a request for comment.
In court Thursday, an attorney for the Department of Justice requested that Biery postpone his release order, which the judge denied. He also halted removal proceedings to allow for the family’s asylum case to proceed while they remain in the U.S.
During the roughly 55-minute hearing, the judge heard arguments from the federal government that a deportation order for the family should be upheld, citing evidence from previous immigration hearings that called the family a risk to the community.
Anne Marie Cordova, an attorney with the Department of Justice, also said the family posed a flight risk.
The family’s attorney, Christopher Godshall-Bennett, disputed that and said there has been an outpouring of community support in Colorado Springs.
Friends, teachers and classmates of the family have called for officials to release the El Gamals for months, organizing protests in downtown Colorado Springs. Many described the family as a key part of their community who were active in school sports and volunteered at a local hospital. The eldest daughter, Habiba, was set to graduate high school with honors and had dreams of attending medical school.
“On a human level, there are two 5-year-old children that have spent about 20% of their lives in this facility,’ Godshall-Bennett said. The mother has a mass on her chest that is causing “excruciating pain” and fluid building up around her heart, he added.
Godshall-Bennett said that the family has a pending asylum claim, which was interrupted by Soliman’s actions, but has since been renewed.
Godshall-Bennett pushed for the family’s release now to avoid the mother and her children being caught in a neverending morass of hearings, extending their detention indefinitely.
“Are you old enough to remember Rod Serling and ‘The Twilight Zone’?” Biery asked Godshall-Bennett.
“Yes, that is exactly what it is,” he replied.
In a statement, Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis with the Department of Homeland Security said the federal government will “continue to fight” for the deportation of those not living in the country legally, “especially national security threats.”
“We are applying the law as written without prejudice,” Bis said. “If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period.”
Biery’s ruling Thursday upheld a recommendation filed by a magistrate judge Monday, officially granting the release of the El Gamal family.
The hearing and judge’s ruling Thursday had no bearing on the family’s legal status; their asylum case will continue in immigration court.
This is a developing story that will be updated.