The wife and children of the Boulder firebombing suspect were freed from federal custody for the second time in three days late Saturday, after two judges halted immigration authorities’ attempt to deport them.
Hayam El Gamal and her five children were rearrested in Denver on Saturday morning and flown to Michigan, on a plane the family’s attorneys said was set to remove them from the country.
Instead, the plane ended up reversing course after leaving Michigan on the second leg of its journey, after U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio issued an emergency order halting the deportation.
A second judge, Nina Wang of U.S. District Court in Denver, also intervened Saturday with an order barring the family from being deported, according to screenshots of their orders posted to X by the family’s attorneys.
The plane ultimately returned to Denver, and El Gamal and her children were released about 11 p.m., their lead attorney, Eric Lee, said on X. In a series of social media posts, he called the episode a “kidnapping,” likening it to the “extraordinary rendition” flights that U.S. authorities used to transport terror suspects in the wake of the Sept.11, 2001, attacks.
“What took place today can only be described as an extraordinary rendition,” Lee said. “5 kids/mom kidnapped by feds in violation of multiple court orders as punishment for crimes committed by someone else.”
El Gamal and her children had been free for two days after spending nearly 10 months in custody at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, southwest of San Antonio, while awaiting deportation proceedings.
At a hearing in San Antonio on Thursday, Judge Biery ordered that El Gamal and her children, ages 5 to 18, be released from detention and allowed to return to their Colorado Springs home under supervision as they awaited action on an asylum petition. The judge required El Gamal and her 18-year-old daughter, Habiba, to wear electronic monitors and said the family must comply with any “reasonable” reporting requirements to immigration authorities.
In a separate order before the hearing, the judge had also halted a last-minute attempt to deport the family before their scheduled appearance in his courtroom for a hearing to consider their release.
According to supporters of the El Gamal and her children, the family had been in Colorado for a matter of hours before they were rearrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
They were taken into custody in Denver, while complying with a required check-in at an ICE field office.
In updates on X on Saturday, Lee described how ICE put the family on a plane headed for Detroit’s Willow Run Airport, with plans to move them “outside the United States to an unknown location.”
The attorney posted the deportation flight’s tail number, allowing supporters to monitor the plane’s course on the flight tracking website Flight Aware.
At 12:52 p.m. Saturday, Lee posted a screenshot of Biery’s emergency order that read, “This court hereby ORDERS that the removal of the petitioners from the United States and from the District of Colorado is STAYED.”
Flight Aware showed the plane stopped in Michigan before again taking off headed east. But it reversed course over Lake Erie and landed at the same airport it departed from, touching down at 3:32 p.m. Mountain Time. The plane remained on the runway for several hours until it began its return flight to Denver, the website showed.
Lee posted a screenshot of the second order by Wang at 6:43 p.m.
Attorneys for El Gamal and her children say the attempt to deport them was made in violation of Biery’s prior court orders.
“The rights of the entire population and the most basic constitutional principles of separation of powers are at stake,” they said in a statement on X. “The legal team urges the population to exercise its free speech rights to stop this unlawful deportation from taking place.”
The family had been detained in Dilley since last June, when the father, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was charged with murder and hate crimes, among other charges, in the attack on mostly Jewish protesters outside the Boulder County courthouse on the Pearl Street Mall.
Family members of Soliman have repeatedly said they had no advance knowledge of the attack, and the FBI said it had no evidence they were involved.
A Department of Homeland Security official issued a statement Saturday evening defending the latest attempt to deport El Gamal and her children, saying they received “full due process” before an immigration judge issued a final order of removal Dec. 29, 2025.
A federal immigration board of appeals upheld the order of removal Wednesday, the statement said.
“Despite receiving full due process, this activist judge appointed by Bill Clinton is releasing this terrorist’s family onto American streets AGAIN,” said Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Bis did not address why federal officials attempted to deport the family Saturday, despite Biery’s order Thursday that they be allowed to remain in the U.S. pending the outcome of their asylum case.
She added: “Under President Trump, DHS will continue to fight for the removal of those who have no right to be in our country — especially terrorists and their associates. We are confident the courts will ultimately vindicate us.”
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.
About 60 people gathered at City Hall in Colorado Springs on Saturday to draw attention to the family’s rearrest and demand their release.
“This has been an incredibly horrific emotional rollercoaster for the family, but also for us,” said Alexandria Newton, a founder of local group Neighbors of Faith and Conviction, which has advocated for the family throughout their detention.
“People were so grateful they were being released. It’s devastating. People are really mad — furious that the government is not following the federal court’s order. It’s discouraging at all levels for our democracy.”