Update: The El Gamal family was released from immigration custody late Saturday back in Colorado, their attorney, Eric Lee, said in an email Sunday.
Federal immigration agents re-arrested the family of the Boulder Pearl Street Mall firebombing suspect on Saturday, hours after they landed in Colorado following their court-ordered release from a Texas detention facility, the family’s attorney said.
A federal judge in Texas ordered the release of the El Gamal family this week, and the family landed in Colorado on Saturday morning, where they were again arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and put on a plane headed for Willow Run Airport in Detroit, attorney Eric Lee said in a statement.
A federal judge in Texas granted an on Saturday, Lee said in a post on X.
“The plane is landing in Michigan in an hour. It constitutionally cannot be allowed to take off,” Lee wrote just before 1 p.m.
It appeared the El Gamals’ deportation flight had turned around as of 3:30 p.m., Lee wrote on social media.
“We are told the family will be released, but we don’t trust a word they say,” Lee said on X.
A flight with the same tail number was scheduled to land at Denver International Airport on Saturday night, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. The plane was still on the tarmac “in the Midwest” as of 6 p.m., Lee wrote on X.
ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Hayam El Gamal, the wife of Boulder suspect Mohamed Soliman, and the couple’s five children were detained soon after Soliman was arrested on suspicion of carrying out a terror attack on the Pearl Street Mall on June 1, 2025.
Soliman filed for divorce in El Paso County in November, and the case is ongoing, court records show. El Gamal’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
Soliman, 46, is accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to burn people who had gathered at the pedestrian mall for a demonstration in support of releasing Israeli hostages in Gaza. Police initially identified 15 people who were injured in the attack and later identified an additional 14 victims, including those who were injured while fleeing and people who were close enough to be victims of attempted murder.
One of the first 15 injured, 82-year-old Karen Diamond, died on June 25, 2025, from her injuries.
Soliman is charged with dozens of felonies and misdemeanors in Boulder County District Court, including murder, attempted murder and assault. He also faces federal prosecution.
Although Trump administration officials initially pledged the El Gamal family would be deported quickly, a federal judge blocked their removal. They have been in custody at a Dilley, Texas, detention center for 10 months.
The family was living in the Colorado Springs area after arriving in the United States in August 2022 and was seeking political asylum. Federal officials said Soliman, who was born in Egypt and lived in Kuwait for 17 years, arrived on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023.
El Gamal and her children, ages 5, 5, 9, 16 and 18, were denied medical care while in federal custody, Lee said this month, including for a growth on her chest and fluid around her heart.
“We are concerned that the systematic denial of medical attention may result in her death,” Lee wrote in an April 14 post on X. “Her children are extremely worried about their mother, who is now their only guardian.”
