Federal judge in Texas orders ICE to immediately release family of Boulder, Colorado, firebombing suspect
A federal judge in Texas issued an order to federal immigration officials to immediately release the family of the Boulder, Colorado, firebombing suspect from a Texas immigration detention center, and barred the government from deporting or even 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 Soliman, 18, were ordered to comply with electronic monitoring and periodically report to immigration authorities. The government was ordered to confirm that the family was released by 4 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday.
Only summaries of the government's two-part objection were publicly available through 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 on Thursday. "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, aged 5, 5, 9, 16, and 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."
Attorneys for the family were on their way to the detention center in Dilley on Thursday morning.
The order comes as part of a lawsuit filed on behalf of Hayam El Gamal and her five children seeking their release. El Gamal, the ex-wife of Boulder firebombing suspect Mohamed Soliman, has been experiencing serious medical issues, according to her legal team, and the FBI concluded months ago that the family knew nothing of Soliman's plans.
On June 1, 2025, 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 Soliman was charged with first-degree murder, on top of dozens of state and federal charges related to attempted murder, assault, use of incendiary devices, and hate crimes.
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. 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 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.
