DILLEY, TEXAS — A Texas federal judge on Saturday ordered the release of Hayam El Gamal and her five children from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and prohibited their deportation. The order followed an attempt earlier that day to remove the family from the United States to Egypt after they had spent 10 months in an ICE detention center in Texas.

El Gamal and her children reported to an ICE office in Colorado on Saturday for a required check-in, where officers detained them again, told them they were being deported and placed them on a plane, their lawyers said. The family's attorneys rushed to four federal courts to halt the removal. Federal judges Fred Biery and Nina Wang each issued emergency orders prohibiting the deportation, and a jet carrying the family toward the East Coast turned around mid-flight and returned them to Denver Saturday night.

"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. The government's behavior yesterday was entirely beyond the pale," attorney Chris Godshall-Bennett said.

ICE had been seeking to expel the family since June 2025, when Mohammed Soliman was charged with attempted murder for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at Colorado protesters supporting Israeli hostages in Gaza. Soliman was also charged with federal hate crimes and remains in custody. El Gamal, who has divorced Soliman, was never charged with any crimes related to the attack, nor were any of her five children, who range in age from 5 to 18.

The family arrived in the United States on tourist visas in 2022 and applied for asylum before their visas expired, according to their attorneys. The asylum application was pending when Soliman was charged. An immigration judge later denied the request, and the family submitted a second asylum application while in detention. The Trump administration said it would investigate whether the family knew about Soliman's alleged plans.

DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis said the family received full due process and was issued a final order of removal on December 29, 2025, and that the Trump administration will continue fighting to deport terrorists and their associates. Bis also said Soliman is a terrorist responsible for an anti-Semitic firebombing in Boulder. DHS did not confirm that it had re-detained the family or address the accusation that it had violated the Texas judge's orders.

Habiba El Gamal said in an interview from the detention center that her mother's health had deteriorated during the family's 10 months in custody and that the family had no knowledge of Soliman's plans. "I'm completely broken," she said.

Godshall-Bennett said, "It's pretty black and white in terms of illegal activity. It's not about immigration law, it's not about visa overstays. It's about collectively punishing this family for the actions of Mr. Soliman."