Alleged Colorado attacker's family released after nearly a year in detention

NPR News ·

Alleged Colorado attacker's family released after nearly a year in detention

The ICE South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, is seen, Aug. 23, 2019. Eric Gay/AP hide caption toggle caption Eric Gay/AP On Thursday evening, Hayam El Gamal and her five children …

The ICE South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, is seen, Aug. 23, 2019. Eric Gay/AP hide caption toggle caption Eric Gay/AP On Thursday evening, Hayam El Gamal and her five children were freed after 10 months at an ICE detention center in Texas. That morning, a Texas federal judge had ordered their release. He had also told the government not to deport them. ICE had been trying to expel them ever since El Gamal's husband, in a high profile case in June 2025, was charged with attempted murder for allegedly throwing molotov cocktails at Colorado protesters who'd gathered in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza – an attack his family said it knew nothing about. Back home in Colorado on Saturday, two days after their release, El Gamal and her children reported to an ICE office for a required check-in. There, ICE detained them again, told them they were being deported to Egypt, and rushed them onto a plane, their lawyers said. "They were horrified," one of their lawyers, Chris Godshall-Bennett, said. It was all done in apparent violation of the Texas judge's orders. Their lawyers rushed to four federal courts on Saturday to try to stop their deportation. In emergency rulings, the Texas judge, Fred Biery, and a second federal judge in Colorado, Nina Wang, again ordered the government not to deport them. …

Original source: NPR News

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United States · East Coast · Department of Homeland Security