DILLEY, Texas - A longing for home and normalcy amongst stories of medical neglect, poor food, abuse and the lack of religious freedom are all themes in letters from an Egyptian family held for months in Texas in the only family facility ran by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
What they're saying:
"This place has destroyed my children, both physically and mentally," Hayam El Gamal wrote in letters released by her attorney.
El Gamal and her five children, ranging in age from 5 to 18, have been held in the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas, since June of last year. The family was detained after the father, Mohamed Soliman, was charged with attacking mostly Jewish protesters at an event in Boulder, Colorado, last June. Soliman is accused of throwing two Molotov cocktails at the demonstrators, injuring dozens. He is facing more than 100 charges related to the incident, including attempted murder.
El Gamal and her family were detained by ICE agents after the attack.
Soliman entered the country in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Soliman filed for asylum and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that also expired.
"We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it. I am continuing to pray for the victims of this attack and their families. Justice will be served," then Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said after the arrests.
El Gamal and her children have denied having any knowledge of the attack. The wife said they were together through an arranged marriage and that Soliman mostly kept to himself. Their 16-year-old son said they only heard about the attack after he looked it up while at a Boulder police station with his mother.
'This place broke something in us': Letters detail terrible conditions of Dilley facility
The mother and children have been held at the Dilley facility for nine months. Much longer than what DHS says is an average stay of two weeks at the facility. A decades-old federal settlement states that families can usually not be detained in an immigration facility for more than 20 days.
The letters sent to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee allege the facility serves moldy food, food with worms and, as 18-year-old Habiba writes, "I found a fingernail in the bowl of fruit."
Both 18-year-old Habiba El Gamal and her brother wrote that if the facility didn't allow them to buy instant noodles, their younger siblings would not eat.
Both Habiba El Gamal and her mother wrote of witnessing the abuse of another detainee at the hands of ICE agents for not allowing them to fingerprint the man.
They claim the man was assaulted to the point that he could no longer walk correctly in front of them and the younger children in the family.
"Fortunately, they told us that they would only use that kind of force with us if we refused to follow their orders," Habiba El Gamal said.
The mother and two oldest children describe the experience as worsening their mental health.
"This place broke something in us, something that I don’t know if we will ever be able to fix," Habiba El Gamal said.
She had just graduated high school when the family was detained. She said she had already made plans for the future and wanted to go to Harvard for medical school.
"I would have never expected to go from a girl who was doing everything to achieve her dream, to a girl that had her life destroyed," she wrote.
A portion of the letter written by 18-year-old Habiba El Gamal from the ICE detention facility in Dilley, Texas. The family has been held in the facility since June 2025. (Attorneys for the El Gamal family)
Habiba El Gamal was separated from the rest of her family earlier this year after speaking out against the conditions at the facility.
"Everyday I spend here crushes my spirit," the brother wrote.
The 16-year-old said he's lost more than 20 pounds since being in the facility because of the poor conditions and food. He said officers make those detained sleep with the lights on and curtains open to their rooms at all hours.
"I haven’t slept like a human being in 9 months," he said.
Hayam El Gamal said the facility did not respect their religion. The family is Muslim. She said she and her daughter sleep in their hijabs because they cannot close the curtains. Her daughter, she said, was only given heavy sweaters to remain covered during the summer.
"I wondered how we could survive in a place that does not respect privacy or religious rights," Hayam El Gamal said.
Medical care is a concern for the family
The 16-year-old said he waited for hours to be seen by medical staff at the facility after telling them he had severe stomach pain and had to be taken to the medical center in a wheelchair. He said he was told to come back in three days if the pain continued.
"I cried and begged her to help me, yet all she did was send me to the waiting room," he said. "I then fell to my hands and knees and threw up inside the waiting room. It was only then that I was taken seriously and transferred to a nearby ER."
Habiba El Gamal said she had to go without glasses for nearly two months while waiting for new ones.
The mother said her 5-year-old daughter has 13 cavities that were scheduled to be fixed before their detention. Despite her pleading with medical staff, she says those cavities have only gotten worse, and they were just given ibuprofen for her daughter's pain.
‘I miss my bear’: Family says the detention has taken its toll on the youngest
"I really miss playing with my toys and my watch," the 9-year-old wrote. "When will we get out of here? I want to go back home. All of my friends left."
A drawing sent from the U.S. Senate Judicial Committee by attorneys for the El Gamal family.
The family said the detention has taken its mental toll on the youngest children as well.
"My 9-year-old daughter, the one who was bright and amazing, the one who loved math and school and was loved by everyone, now says, ‘I hate my life,’" the mother wrote. She said the girl wakes up crying during the night.
Of the 5-year-old twins, she said the boy has started wetting himself at night, while the girl wakes up during the night screaming and crying from a nightmare that "she feels she is being chased by something but can't escape because of the fence and the locked gates."
A drawing by one of the 5-year-old El Gamal twins.
"I miss my bear," one of the 5-year-olds wrote.
A drawing by one of the 5-year-old El Gamal twins.
"I want to go home," writes the other.
For the oldest daughter, Habiba, she said she longs for the day the family is released.
"We forget what it feels like to be free," she wrote. "We miss what it feels like to wake up in our own beds with our phones next to us. We dream about how we want our first meal together as a family to be pizza and then cake."
Claims of abuse at other ICE facilities
In December, human rights groups accused another Texas ICE facility of similar conditions.
The groups claimed immigrants being held at a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detention facility in El Paso were being threatened, subjected to physical abuse and coerced to cross the border into Mexico by officers.
Measles outbreak forces lockdown of Texas ICE detention facility
A measles outbreak at the Fort Bliss immigration camp has infected 14 detainees and forced a total lockdown of the facility.
Those interviewed at Camp East Montana said there was a lack of food and medical care at that facility as well, something that DHS called "categorically false."
The agency said those detained by ICE were given proper meals, medical treatment, access to showers, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members.
The Source: Information in this article comes from the attorneys for the El Gamal family. Previous reporting on conditions at ICE facilities comes from previous FOX Local reporting. Information on the Boulder, Colorado attack comes from the Associated Press.