An Egyptian family of six was taken back into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody on Saturday, just two days after federal judges ordered their release from a Texas detention facility where they had been held for 10 months.

SAN ANTONIO — Hayam El Gamal and her five children were on a private jet in Denver, bound for Egypt, when their attorneys learned they were being deported in direct violation of a federal court order. The re-arrest came less than 48 hours after a U.S. district judge had ordered their release from the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, the nation's only federal immigrant facility authorized to imprison parents with their children.

"This is a very live situation — an absolutely brazen violation of separation of powers," said Eric Lee, the family's attorney. "This is outrageous and undermines the rights of every American."

The El Gamal family's case reveals the dangerous expansion of executive power under the Trump administration, where immigration enforcement operates as a law unto itself — courts issue orders, and ICE ignores them.

The Family: Punished for a Crime They Didn't Commit

The El Gamal family — Hayam El Gamal and her five children, including 5-year-old twins — arrived in the United States on a tourist visa in August 2022 and later applied for asylum. They had been living quietly in Colorado until June 2025, when federal authorities arrested them following the arrest of Hayam's husband, Mohamed Sabry Soliman.

Soliman is accused of throwing Molotov cocktails into a crowd at a 2025 event drawing awareness to hostages in Gaza. The firebombing attack injured more than a dozen people, and an 82-year-old woman died from her wounds. Soliman faces more than 100 federal charges, including attempted murder and federal hate crimes. He pleaded not guilty.

Hayam El Gamal 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, is no longer in contact with him, and Hayam has filed for divorce.

None of that mattered to ICE.

10 Months of Hell at Dilley

The El Gamal family was held at the Dilley detention center for 10 months — believed to be the longest of any family during Donald Trump's second administration. The conditions they endured, documented in medical records and the children's own words, were horrifying.

Hayam El Gamal was denied medical attention for months. In one medical episode, she experienced "excruciating pain" from an unidentified bump. An emergency room doctor recommended an ultrasound to determine if it was cancerous — a legitimate concern given her family history. ICE denied the request.

Her five-year-old child needed dental care for 13 cavities. ICE said no.

Portrait of Hayam El Gamal, the Egyptian mother detained at Dilley ICE facility with her five children

When her 16-year-old son developed acute appendicitis — a potentially life-threatening condition requiring immediate surgery — ICE told him to take Tylenol.

This is what the U.S. government does to children while their parents await immigration hearings.

The family's case went viral in March after their attorneys shared heartbreaking accounts in the children's own words and drawings of the harm they suffered at Dilley.

"We have been here for nine months," the 9-year-old wrote. "I really miss playing with my toys and my watch. 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."

The Release and the Re-Arrest

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered the family's release, ruling that they should be freed while they await an immigration judge's decision on their asylum case. Judge Biery's ruling was consistent with a previous order by U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Chestney, who also found that the family — including the 5-year-old twins — should not be held indefinitely in detention.

ICE released the family on Thursday.

On Saturday, at their first check-in since being freed, ICE re-arrested them all.

They were loaded onto a plane bound for Michigan, from where the government planned to deport them to Egypt. Their attorneys argued that deportation would put the family at risk of persecution, but that consideration didn't matter to ICE.

The family was mid-flight, with the engines likely already warmed up, when Judge Biery issued an emergency order blocking the deportation. A second federal judge in Colorado issued a separate ruling Saturday evening, reiterating that the family should not be deported.

The plane never took off.

"The plane 'constitutionally cannot be allowed to take off,'" Lee posted on X Saturday afternoon.

The El Gamal family during their prolonged detention at the South Texas Family Residential Center

A Pattern of Defiance

This was not the first time Trump's administration has ignored court orders to deport immigrants. 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 in El Salvador last year despite a U.S. court order barring his deportation.

The pattern is clear: ICE operates as if it is above the law. Federal judges issue orders. ICE ignores them. The executive branch refuses to be constrained by the judicial branch.

"This is outrageous and undermines the rights of every American," U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, an Austin Democrat, posted on X. "If the administration can 'ignore a court order to go after this family, anyone could be next.'"

The Government's Response

The Department of Homeland Security did not directly address questions about the family's re-arrest. In a statement attributed to Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis, the department reiterated that it would "continue to fight for the removal of those who have no right to be in our country — especially national security threats."

Bis argued that the family had received "full due process" — an account that has been disputed by the family's attorneys and a Houston Chronicle report citing previous judicial decisions.

In July 2025, when a federal court dismissed a lawsuit to release the family, then-DHS secretary Kristi Noem hailed the ruling: "Just like her terrorist husband, she and her children are here illegally and are rightfully in ICE custody for removal as a result."

The Trump administration, shortly after the family was arrested last June, publicized their case on X, promising "Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed's Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon."

This is the dehumanization that makes possible the inhumanity. The administration treats a mother and her five children as political props — as weapons in a culture war against immigrants, regardless of their innocence or legal rights.

What This Means for Everyone

The El Gamal family's case is not just about immigration. It is about the separation of powers. It is about whether the executive branch can ignore court orders. It is about whether the rule of law applies to the government itself.

When ICE can re-arrest a family days after a federal judge orders their release, when the government can ignore judicial rulings it doesn't like, when the executive branch operates without constraint — that is the definition of authoritarianism.

The courts said the El Gamal family was free. ICE said they weren't.

If the administration can ignore a court order to go after this family, anyone could be next.