Federal judge in Texas orders ICE to immediately release family of Boulder, Colorado, firebombing suspect

A mother and five children from Colorado, held in federal detention since shortly after the alleged terrorist attack in Boulder last June, were freed Thursday afternoon following a ruling from a federal court in Texas.

The judge issued an order to federal immigration officials to immediately release the family of the suspect in the attack, Mohamed Soliman, from a Texas immigration detention center, and barred the government from deporting or removing them from the Western District of Texas. In response, the government has filed an objection.

"Petitioners Hayam El Gamal, Habiba Soliman, and the 4 minor children, E.S.; A.S.; H.S.; and O.S. are ORDERED to be RELEASED IMMEDIATELY," U.S. District Judge Fred Biery's Thursday order read.

El Gamal and her 18-year-old daughter, Habiba Soliman, were ordered to comply with electronic monitoring and periodically report to immigration authorities. The minor children are only identified by their initials in court documents.

Only summaries of the government's two-part objection were available through public court records, but they indicated that the government objected to recommendations issued by the court on Monday, the details of which were also not yet public.

Niels Frenzen, an attorney at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law Immigration Clinic, and one of the attorneys representing the family, confirmed that the judge issued the order.

"A federal judge has ordered the Government to release a family who have been unlawfully targeted and punished because of the alleged actions of their husband and father," he told CBS News Colorado. "This release order is long overdue. But the Administration's efforts to deport the family continue, so their ordeal is not over yet."

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis responded to the order, saying, "Despite receiving full due process and a final order of removal, this activist judge appointed by Bill Clinton is releasing this terrorist's family onto American streets. Under President Trump, DHS will continue to fight for the removal of those who have no right to be in our country especially national security threats."

"We are applying the law as written without prejudice," Bis went on. "If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period."

On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Chestney recommended that El Gamal and her children, ages 5 to 18, be released. 

Chestney said the government failed to prove that the family is dangerous or a flight risk, and that there are "significant risks that the Government will intervene to again target Petitioners' case and to prevent their lawful release."

Habiba Soliman was an honored high school student in Colorado Springs. She was planning to start college in the fall when the family was taken into custody. She hoped to eventually attend Harvard Medical School.

"I know that Habiba's a fighter. She is strong. She is incredibly brave. And I know she's been strong for her family," her friend Lilah Pettey, a freshman at Colorado School of Mines, said on Thursday.

"It's my freshman year of college, and she is not experiencing her freshman year of college. It was supposed to be something that we all go off to college. It was supposed to be something that we all talk about," Pettey said.

She is among those who plan to help the family upon release.

"The thought of losing them as contributors to this country and this wonderful community was terrible to think about. And I'm greatly relieved that the right thing has happened," Pettey added.

Attorneys for the family traveled to the detention center in Dilley after the judge's decision, where they helped the family upon release.

The order comes as part of a lawsuit filed on behalf of El Gamal and her five children seeking their release.

The legal team trying to secure the family's release has said that El Gamal had repeatedly been denied medical care for serious issues. After the release, an attorney for the family said they needed to figure out those urgent medical issues immediately.

On June 1, 2025, Mohamed Soliman allegedly threw Molotov cocktails — makeshift incendiary devices — at people who marched in downtown Boulder to bring attention to Israeli hostages who were being held in Gaza at the time, injuring over a dozen.

One of those people, 82-year-old Karen Diamond, later died of her injuries, officials said, and Mohamed Soliman was charged with first-degree murder, in addition to dozens of state and federal charges related to attempted murder, assault, use of incendiary devices, and hate crimes.

Habiba Soliman told CBS Colorado in a phone interview from the Dilley facility in January, "We condemn all people that use violence. Even including my father."

Mohamed Soliman's family, who had immigrated with him from Egypt, had been living in Colorado Springs at the time of the attack and applied for asylum after their visas expired before the attack. Upon learning of their immigration status after the attack, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take the family into custody, where they've been for about 10 months.

In the federal court case against Mohamed Soliman, an FBI agent testified that the family knew nothing of the attack, and they had cooperated with the investigation. They've been held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas for almost the entirety of their detention. They were denied bond by Immigration Judge Justin Adams in January, reversing his own decision from the previous September.