Colorado teachers and friends of family detained by ICE for seven months "appalled" at bond denial

An immigration judge last week denied bond to the wife and children of accused Boulder terror attack suspect Mohamed Soliman. They have been in custody in Dilley, Texas for more than seven months.

ICE detained Soliman's wife and their five children after the attack. The agency says it intends to deport them. The family is from Egypt, and applied for asylum after their visas expired. They were living in Colorado Springs, attending local schools. The children range in age from 5 to 18.

A woman from Boulder died after the terror attack on Pearl Street last June, and others suffered burns, with a total of 15 people injured. The marchers were part of a group of Jewish Coloradans raising awareness for the hostages in Gaza.

Colorado Springs advocates said Soliman's wife, Hayam El Gamal, and their children knew nothing about the attack, and they deserve due process.

Eric Lee, the family's attorney said that in September, Immigration Judge Justin Adams declared the family eligible for bond on the grounds they were not a danger to the community, and not a flight risk.

"Now this same immigration judge has reversed his previous decision and determined that the family is likely to abscond from justice if they're released," said Lee.

Lee added that what he called "kin punishment" had no place in a civilized society, and that the family should be freed pending their application for asylum.

Lee said El Gamal and her children cooperated fully with the FBI's investigation. But, in his view, this could now put them at risk if the whole family were deported to Egypt.

In the court case against Mohamed Soliman, an FBI agent testified that the family knew nothing of the attack.

Lee said that on denying bond, the judge said the family lacked community support, were a flight risk, and that attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security stated in court that the eldest daughter of Soliman, Habiba, and her teenage brother, should not be eligible for bond because they were "terrorist adjacent." CBS News Colorado reached out to DHS on January 21, asking for a statement on its current position on the family's case and whether it had any new evidence, and has not received a response.

Colorado Springs supporters of the children and their mother say they collected hundreds of signatures from people favoring their release, with many declaring their support publicly at a January 19 press conference.

Following the bond denial on the 21st, the group of supporters sent a statement saying, "I would ask the judge to give us a number that he deems "sufficient proof" of community support and we will provide it." Supporters of the family include Elizabeth Reinhold, who was a teacher to three of the school-aged children, and Alisha Olivares, a parent who was close to the family.

The statement went on to say, "Not only is there no evidence to support that the mother and children had any knowledge of their father's actions, nor did they participate in the attack directly or indirectly, but they have proved the opposite. Hayam (El Gamal) has given support to her Jewish neighbor and served the hungry, Habiba (the eldest daughter) has done countless acts of kindness in and out of school."

"We are appalled by the outcome and can only hope that as easily as the judge was able to change his mind from no flight risk to being a flight risk, we hope that he will change it back. We recognize that Judge Justin Adams is aiming to keep the community safe, and we desire the same outcome," the statement added.

After the attack, the White House posted on social media that the family had been arrested. "They could be deported as early as tonight," read a June 3, 2025, post on X.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted a video and wrote, "We are taking the family of alleged Boulder, Colorado terrorist and illegal alien Mohamed Soliman into ICE custody." "We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it," Noem continued.

In a recent statement, the eldest daughter Habiba Soliman raised concerns about conditions at the Dilley, Texas ICE detention facility. CBS News Colorado has been seeking a response from DHS since January 7th, about the questions raised by Habiba Soliman, regarding the treatment of her five year old siblings.

We have yet to receive a response. On January 24th, the family's attorney Lee, posted on X while detainees protested at Dilley. He said he was attempting to visit the El Gamal-Soliman family when he was asked by guards to leave.

Lee was outside the detention center and said detainees, including children, could be heard chanting, "Let us out, let us out."