Colorado Springs, Colo., community members gathered at America the Beautiful Park for a press conference at 1:45 p.m. on Jan. 19. Their message was simple: they demanded the release of local family Hayam El Gamal and her five children from federal detention.
The six Colorado Springs residents have been detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, the largest immigrant detention center in the United States, since June 4, 2025. The oldest child, Habiba Soliman, had graduated from high school days prior to the event and was enrolled in college for the upcoming fall semester. All the other children were under the age of 17 at the time of their detainment.
This family’s detention came in direct response to the actions of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, husband of Hayam and father to their five children.
On June 1, 2025, the father of the family, Mohamed Sabry Soliman was accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at a crowd of people gathered to support Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colo. Fifteen of the event’s peaceful protesters were injured, with one victim eventually dying from injuries sustained. The case was investigated by both the Boulder Police Department and the FBI.
Almost immediately following Soliman’s arrest, his wife and children were detained by federal ICE agents. The family had been seeking asylum in the United States and was awaiting either acceptance or denial. During the grace period, they were permitted to stay in the United States.
On June 2, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement stating that the federal courts were handing the American people a legal victory against a family that was allegedly here illegally. The Soliman family filed a lawsuit on the grounds that they were permitted to remain in the United States while seeking asylum.
The Department of Homeland Security quoted Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin saying, “This is a proper end to an absurd legal effort on the plaintiff’s part. Just like her terrorist husband, she and her children are here illegally and are rightfully in ICE custody for removal as a result. This terrorist will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 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.”
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem also posted on X, writing “We are investigating to what extent [Mohamed Soliman’s] family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it.”
The White House X account also posted on the matter, stating, “Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon.”
U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher blocked the immediate deportation of the Soliman family. Furthermore, the family’s attorneys asserted that “it is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives. Such methods of collective or family punishment violate the very foundations of a democratic justice system.”
The FBI has since cleared Hayam El Gamal and her children of any involvement in the June attack. They remain in detention.
Some of the speakers, former classmates and teachers, focused on Habiba. Every person who spoke of her did so highly, focusing on her strong character and inherent good nature. A previous classmate reminisced on how she had, on multiple occasions, written words of encouragement on sticky notes and posted them on every student’s locker in her high school. She also recalled how, when a particularly difficult physics assignment had their entire class holed up studying, she was the sole individual who showed up for her “little sister” in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program, not wanting to let her down.
Character aside, Habiba was recognized for her merits by national organizations. She was one of the Gazette’s Best and Brightest Charity Scholarship 2025 recipients and was deeply involved in the Colorado Springs community. She aspired to be a doctor, a goal affirmed by most of the speakers.
A teammate of her younger brother described him as “bright, thoughtful and hardworking.” He often translated for his younger siblings and played soccer for their high school team. Other women from the community described Hayam, their mother, as warm and dedicated to her children.
Community member Jennifer Blazes said, “I have known Hayam as a kind and open-hearted woman and mother, devoted to her children, honest about hardship and sincere in her desire to belong and to build community here; that spirit was visible to her neighbors. Public reporting described her bringing cupcakes to her Jewish neighbors, an ordinary act of kindness that reflects shared humanity.”
To conclude the press conference, a community representative read aloud an abridged version of a letter Habiba herself wrote from the detention facility.
“We’ve been fighting and struggling to get the most basic things like food, medicine and even clothes,” Habiba said.
Habiba describes her days at the facility as filled with psychological and physical distress. “Our days here are defined by lines. We wait two hours to get a computer and one hour for food, three times a day. It takes a three-hour wait to get one dose of medicine, which we need at least twice a day, after we’ve already waited three hours to get it prescribed. If we need to buy anything, we wait in line for three hours to buy very expensive, low-quality items.”
Habiba remarks how the facility keeps taking new residents, straining space and resources.
“My brother had appendicitis, and when he went to the medical department, he wasn’t even seen by a doctor. He was seen by a nurse who told him to ‘leave and come back in three days if you still have pain,’” Habiba wrote. “He was finally taken to be seen after he threw up in the waiting room and begged the nurse that he couldn’t even walk from the pain.”
The family feels less hope the further they get from the date of their detention on June 4, 2025. “We were expecting to get out after 24 days, but unfortunately, they didn’t tell us the whole story. They didn’t tell us that we would have one court after another and that it would be nearly impossible for us to get out,” Habiba said.
The community members concluded the press conference following the reading of Habiba’s letter. They opened the floor for questions, comforted one another and discussed the event.
Colorado Springs resident Mary Margaret Alvarado said, “Children are not responsible for the crimes of their fathers. I am so grateful for this common sense and humane principle that is enshrined in the laws of the United States of America.”