A federal magistrate on Monday recommended the release of a mother and five children who have been detained longer than any other family in a Texas immigration detention center. They have been held since the arrest of the children\u2019s father nearly a year ago after an anti-semitic firebombing attack in Colorado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. Magistrate Eilzabeth \u201cBetsy\u201d Chestney reviewed the petition for release, known as a habeus corpus petition, filed by Hayman El Gamal and her five children and recommended to U.S. District Judge Fred Biery that they be released \u201cunder conditions sufficient to ensure their participation at future removal proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
El Gamal and her children were detained in June after the arrest of her ex-husband Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45. He has been charged in connection with the attack in Boulder on a group calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The woman, who has divorced Soliman, has said that she and the children knew nothing about Soliman’s alleged plans. The couple divorced after his arrest and his family’s detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We are hopeful and vindicated by this decision, however the government has not yet released this family and we are insisting it do so immediately,\u201d said Eric Lee, the mother and children\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A hearing has been scheduled for Thursday morning in San Antonio where the federal judge plans to consider the attorneys\u2019 arguments along with Chestney\u2019s recommendation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lee said El Gamal and her children had a mixed reaction to the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe family feels vindicated, as well, by this decision and also they have gone through enough in the last 10 and a half months of detention to know it\u2019s not over yet because of how brazenly and sadistic the White House has been to this family and five innocent children,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The night the family was detained, the Trump administration signaled it wanted to deport them, posting on social media about six one-way tickets for “Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The family has been vocal through letters from El Gamal and her older children and with drawings from the younger ones about conditions in the detention campus and the length of their detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The children range in age from 5 to 18. The eldest, Habiba Soliman, was separated from the family when she turned 18 in detention and after participating in a protest at the facility. The other children also marked birthdays in the facility in Dilley, Texas, southwest of San Antonio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Early this month, El Gamal was taken to a local area emergency room with a lump in her chest. Court documents filed by her attorney said El Gamal had not been given proper attention or treatment. Emergency personnel off site found she had fluid around her heart but did not determine the cause of the lump, according to court filings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DHS has denied the allegations of delayed or denied treatment for El Gamal. The agency has previously labeled allegations about poor care to be “mainstream media lies” and said the families are housed at facilities that “provide for their safety, security and medical needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The agency also has previously said the families have access to full medical staff, including a pediatrician, and it described the care as \u201cthe best healthcare\u201d some detainees have received \u201cin their entire lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The federal magistrate’s recommendation to release the family came in the latest ongoing attempt to win their release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chestney waded through the family’s convoluted path through the immigration courts, which are part of the executive branch of the U.S. government, and the federal judicial system, a separate branch of government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The family had been previously ordered released on $15,000 bond on Sept. 19, 2025, by an immigration judge. But through various legal manuevers, the government kept them in detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The family’s attorney had fought for their release, arguing that their due process rights had been violated when they were made to prove that they were not a flight risk or a danger to the community \u2014 rather than the government’s lawyers proving their were \u2014 in immigration court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The magistrate stated in her recommendation that specific factors in the case required “additional procedural protections to ensure Petitioners (El Gamal and her children) have been afforded the process they are due.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under court-mandated rules arising from a lawsuit settlement, the government can\u2019t detain children longer than 20 days, a rule the administration repeatedly violates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n