A federal judge Saturday afternoon ruled that an Egyptian family of six, should not immediately be deported after immigration agents suddenly re-arrested the family
DILLEY, Texas — This article was previously published in the Texas Tribune.
A Texas federal judge Saturday afternoon ruled that an Egyptian family of six, believed to be the longest held at the controversial South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, should not immediately be deported after immigration agents suddenly re-arrested the family hours earlier.
The ruling comes as the family is on a federal plane to Michigan, from where they could quickly be deported to Egypt where their attorneys said the mother and her five children fear persecution.
The plane, the attorney, Michigan-based Eric Lee, posted on X, “constitutionally cannot be allowed to take off.”
It would not be the first time that President Donald Trump’s administration has deported immigrants after federal judges ordered against their removal. Among the most well known cases is that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of El Salvador, who was living in Maryland before he was mistakenly sent to a notorious mega-prison there last year despite an earlier court order barring his deportation. That case spurred global criticism although he has since been returned to the U.S. as litigation in his case is ongoing.
“Stop this travesty of justice from taking place,” Lee, the Gamal family attorney posted on X earlier Saturday.
U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio on Saturday ruled that given the emergency appeal by lawyers hours earlier, the family’s immediate deportation to Egypt should be paused. Biery agreed with a ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Chestney earlier this week hat the family, which includes 5-year-old twins who have been held at Dilley for more than 10 months, should be freed while they await an immigration judge’s decision on their asylum case.
The family received widespread attention after the mother and her children earlier this year began publicly raising alarms about the treatment at the facility, including medical neglect, rotting food, impotable water, and disrespect for their Muslim faith. Last week, lawyers said that the mother was rushed to the emergency room after months of suffering from an unidentified bump, which she feared may be cancerous due to her family history and possibly heightened by the lack of medical care at the detention center.
In an emergency request to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Saturday, the family’s attorneys argued that halting their immediate deportation is necessary in part because of the “highly irregular actions that the government has taken” against the family since they were detained last year. The attorneys said that the family was re-arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at their first check-in since being freed Thursday.
Spokespeople for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions Saturday. But in a statement earlier this week that followed their release, DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis wrote that her agency “will continue to fight for the removal of those who have no right to be in our country especially national security threats.” She argued that the family had received “full due process,” an account that has been disputed by their attorneys and a Houston Chronicle report this month citing previous judicial decisions.
The El Gamal family, who came to the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2022 and later applied for asylum, has been detained since June after the father, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was charged with attacking mostly Jewish protesters in Boulder, Colorado, accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at demonstrators supporting Israeli hostages. He allegedly wounded at least 29 people and an 82-year-old woman died from her injuries. The father, who pleaded not guilty, remains in federal custody on more than 100 charges related to the incident.
Trump’s administration, shortly after the family was arrested last June, publicized the case, promising “Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon.”
His wife, who met her husband in an arranged marriage when she was young, and her children have not been charged with any crimes. They have repeatedly maintained that they did not know about Soliman’s plans and had an estranged relationship with him. The family has since disavowed the father and is no longer in contact with him, their attorney said, and his wife has filed for divorce.
The family’s case went viral last month after its lawyers shared heartbreaking accounts in the children’s own words and drawings of the harm they said they were suffering at Dilley.
“We have been here for nine months. I really miss playing with my toys and my watch,” wrote the 9-year-old in accounts first shared with The Texas Tribune. “Please get us out of here.”
“Imagine being punished for something that you didn’t do, something you would never support, and then being trapped in detention for months,” wrote 18-year-old Habiba El Gamal, the family’s eldest daughter. “Despite having overwhelming evidence to prove our innocence, the truth is ignored.”