Judge Halts Deportation of Boulder Firebomb Suspect’s Family Again

A federal judge halted the deportation of Hayam El Gamal and her five children again after immigration officers re-detained the family during a scheduled ICE check-in in Denver, turning a brief release into a new legal scramble within 48 hours.

The family, which includes children ages 5 to 18, had spent more than 10 months at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas before U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered their release on April 23, 2026. Under that order, El Gamal and her eldest child, Habiba Soliman, were required to wear ankle monitors.

Their detention began in June 2025, after the June 1 firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado, in which Mohamed Sabry Soliman, El Gamal’s ex-husband, was charged. An 82-year-old woman injured in the attack later died. The family was never charged in connection with the attack, and their lawyers said they had no advance knowledge of Soliman’s plans.

The legal fight has centered on whether immigration authorities went too far in holding the family for so long. Federal magistrate Elizabeth Chestney had recommended release under conditions designed to ensure the family appeared at future removal proceedings. Biery accepted that recommendation, but less than two days after the family left detention, ICE officers detained them again at the Denver check-in and moved to remove them.

The Department of Homeland Security called Biery an “activist judge” and said it was fighting the family’s removal. Their lawyers said El Gamal’s health had worsened in custody, including severe pain that sent her to an emergency room and a CT scan that reportedly showed fluid around her heart. They also said all five children were suffering from depression after months in detention.

The case has become a sharp example of due-process whiplash in immigration enforcement: release ordered by a court, re-detention by ICE, then another judicial intervention stopping deportation and sending the family home. It also lands in a broader controversy over family detention in Texas, where NBC 5 Investigates has reported that hundreds of children have been held beyond the 20-day limit generally allowed under the Flores Settlement.