DILLEY, TEXAS - July 12, 2016: The Texas city of Dilley had a population just over 4,000 people (according to 2014 Census) and is home to the South Texas Family Residential Center, a detention facility for immigrant women and children, which opened i …
DILLEY, Texas - A federal judge has ordered the release of a mother and her five children from a Texas immigration detention facility where the family has been held for the past 10 months.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery signed an order to release Hayam El Gamal and her five children Thursday. As part of the conditions of the family's release, El Gamal and her oldest child will be required to wear electronic monitoring.
A request from the government to stay the ruling so it could appeal was denied.
Attorneys for the family celebrated the news Thursday.
"Just finished arguing the El Gamal family's habeas petition in San Antonio. The Court has ordered their IMMEDIATE RELEASE," attorney Chris Godshall-Bennett said. "I left the courtroom in tears, thrilled that this family can return to their home."
Eric Lee, who also represents the family, said he had been at the Dilley, Texas, detention center where the family has been held but Immigration officials had yet to speak with him.
"The court order has been published demanding ICE release the El Gamal family immediately and ICE has still not yet even agreed to speak to us," Lee said on X.
Family held in detention since husband's arrest
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.
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.
Family documented abuse and lack of care
Last month, letters from El Gamal and her children were released by her attorneys that detailed the conditions they faced during their stay.
Dilley ICE detainee at risk of death from lack of medical care, attorney says
Attorneys for a family held in a Dilley, Texas, ICE facility said the family has been held at the facility for nearly a year without proper medical care, leaving them with serious health issues and the mother at risk of death.
El Gamal and her oldest daughter detailed watching other detainees being abused at the hands of ICE agents and how they were not afforded privacy or allowed to cover themselves as required by their religion.
The letters talked about how they had found a fingernail in their food and if it wasn't for being able to purchase instant noodles the youngest children would not have eaten.
They also talked about the emotional toll being confined in Dilley has taken on the family and that they were all suffering from depression.
The Source: Information in this article comes from documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas and previous FOX Local reporting.