Trump admin dealt setback as deportation flight turned around mid-air by judge
by Lomi Kriel, The Texas Tribune
A flight carrying an Egyptian family to Michigan late Saturday abruptly turned around after a Texas judge ruled that the six should remain in the U.S. pending further litigation.
The last-minute reversal was the most recent development in a dizzying series of events this week that attorneys said added to ongoing questions over the executive’s power compared to the judiciary when it comes to President Donald Trump’s purview of immigration and his administration’s push for expanded deportations.
A Texas federal judge Saturday ruled that the family, believed to be the longest held at the controversial South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, should not immediately be deported after immigration agents suddenly re-arrested the mother and her children hours earlier.
The ruling came as the family was on a plane to Michigan, from where the government ostensibly planned to quickly deport them to Egypt, where their attorneys said the mother and her children fear persecution.
The plane, the attorney, Michigan-based Eric Lee, posted on X, “constitutionally cannot be allowed to take off.”
It would not have been the first time that Trump’s administration deported immigrants after federal judges ordered against their removal. 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 that Central American country last year despite an earlier U.S. court order barring Abrego Garcia’s deportation. His case spurred global criticism, although he has since returned to the U.S., as litigation in his case is ongoing.
“Stop this travesty of justice from taking place,” Lee, the Gamal family attorney, posted on X earlier Saturday, referring to the El Gamal family.
Lee added that the “attempt to remove the El Gamal family is in violation of a federal court order and must be halted immediately. The rights of the entire population and the most basic principles of separation of powers are at stake.”
U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio ruled hours after the family’s re-detention Saturday that given the emergency appeal by lawyers, the family’s deportation to Egypt should be paused. Biery agreed with his own previous ruling as well as one by U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Chestney this week that the family, which includes 5-year-old twins who have been held at Dilley for more than 10 months, should be freed while they await an immigration judge’s decision on their asylum case.
The family received widespread attention after the mother and her children earlier this year began publicly raising alarms about the treatment at the facility, including medical neglect, rotting food, impotable water, and disrespect for their Muslim faith. Last week, lawyers said that the mother was rushed to the emergency room after months of suffering from an unidentified bump, which she feared may be cancerous due to her family history and possibly heightened by the lack of medical care at the detention center.
In an emergency request to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Saturday, the family’s attorneys argued that halting their immediate deportation is necessary in part because of the “highly irregular actions that the government has taken” against the family since they were detained last year. The attorneys said that the family was re-arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at their first check-in since being freed Thursday.
The family’s sudden re-detention ignited widespread criticism by advocates and some congressional Democrats.
“This is outrageous and undermines the rights of every American,” U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, an Austin Democrat, posted on X. He noted that if the administration can “ignore a court order to go after this family, anyone could be next.”
Spokespeople for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions Saturday. But in a statement earlier this week that followed the family’s release, DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis wrote that her agency “will continue to fight for the removal of those who have no right to be in our country especially national security threats.” She argued that the family had received “full due process,” an account that has been disputed by their attorneys and a Houston Chronicle report this month citing previous judicial decisions.
The El Gamal family, who came to the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2022 and later applied for asylum, has been detained since June after the father, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was charged with attacking mostly Jewish protesters in Boulder, Colorado, accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at demonstrators supporting Israeli hostages. He allegedly wounded at least 29 people and an 82-year-old woman died from her injuries. The father, who pleaded not guilty, remains in federal custody on more than 100 charges related to the incident.
Trump’s administration, shortly after the family was arrested last June, publicized the case, promising “Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon.”
His wife, who met her husband in an arranged marriage when she was young, 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 and is no longer in contact with him, their attorney said, and his wife has filed for divorce.
The family’s case went viral last month after its lawyers shared heartbreaking accounts in the children’s own words and drawings of the harm they said they were suffering at Dilley.
“We have been here for nine months. I really miss playing with my toys and my watch,” wrote the 9-year-old in accounts first shared with The Texas Tribune. “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.”
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.