DILLEY, Texas (KOAA) — The wife of the suspected Boulder firebomb attacker issued her first public statement since being detained and placed into deportation proceedings by the Trump administration.
On Wednesday, a federal judge also granted a 14-day extension to a temporary restraining order, barring the government from deporting the family until an immigration hearing is scheduled, which is expected to occur before the extension ends.
“We are grieving, and we are suffering. We are treated like animals by the officers, who told us we are being punished for what my husband is accused of doing,” said Hayam El Gamal in her statement. “But why punish me? Why punish my four-year-old children? Why punish any of us, who did nothing wrong?”
El Gamal is married to the accused Boulder attacker, Mohamed Soliman. They lived in El Paso County with their five children.
Her statement was shared by her immigration attorney, Eric Lee, who told KOAA she dictated the statement over the phone. Lee said he hasn’t been able to visit the family in Dilley, Texas. at a detention center where they’re being held. Lee posted the statement on his X account.
“All [my children] want is to be home, to be in school, to have privacy, to sleep in their own beds, to have their mother make them a home-cooked meal, to help them grieve and get through these terrible weeks,” El Gamal said in the statement.
“But instead, we are here, in jail in Texas, where you can’t be human. Where you are always being watched. Where you are woken up in the middle of the night by guards and given food fit for animals,” she said.
Hayam El Gamal and her five children were detained by federal immigration officials on June 3, two days after her husband’s apparent attack on a peaceful Boulder demonstration by a Jewish group calling for the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas.
Soliman allegedly threw makeshift firebombs at the demonstrators, injuring 15 people and a dog. He’s facing a federal hate crime charge for the June 1 attack, plus an additional 118 state criminal charges, including attempted murder.
Soliman was due in federal court in Denver on Wednesday.
El Gamal said they were arrested by ICE and put on a flight to Texas “in the middle of the night.”
They’ve been in “an immigration jail” for the past two weeks, she said. Her two four-year-old children, seven-year-old, fifteen-year-old, and oldest daughter are also detained. The eldest daughter turned 18 while in detention, El Gamal said.
Her statement goes on to say they’ve “tried to do everything right” since arriving in the US three years ago. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Soliman entered the country in August of 2022 on a B2 visa that expired in February of 2023. He filed for asylum in September of 2022, but it was never granted.
“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,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in a video posted to X on June 3.
El Gamal maintained they had nothing to do with her husband’s attack and said they’ve been cooperating with authorities.
She ended the statement by saying, “It has been so hard for me to stay strong for my kids. I’m so tired. I ask the American people, with all my heart, to please listen to our story and help us.”
El Gamal’s immigration attorney, Michigan-based Eric Lee, said the government had opposed the request for an extension on the Temporary Restraining Order, which bars the administration from deporting the family.
“It’s strange because [the government] indicated they weren’t going to try and deport the family before they even had a hearing in immigration court,” Lee said.
We have reached out to the Department of Homeland Security in response to these statements and claims and are awaiting a response. This article will be updated if and when a spokesperson responds.
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