Parents, students, and faculty of the Thomas MacLaren School held a press conference in Colorado Springs yesterday asking for the release of the Soliman family — Hayam El-Gamal and her five children, aged 18 to five — from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.
The family, citizens of Egypt, immigrated to the U.S. from Kuwait in 2022 with B-1 visas. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), they filed for asylum on September 29, 2022. The Soliman family settled in Colorado Springs, and the children attended Thomas MacLaren. Habiba Soliman, the eldest daughter, graduated in 2025 and was awarded the Gazette’s “Best and Brightest” scholarship.
“I worked closely with this family over the years and spoke with the parents several times a month, helping them navigate American culture, the college application process, the school’s approach to education, English language support, and cultural differences,” said Elizabeth Reinhold, a K-12 English language learner coordinator at Thomas MacLaren. “I was their advocate and often a mediator between the family and the school … As for the children, three of them were school-aged at the time, and I worked with all three on a weekly basis, helping them with English, reading, writing, understanding American culture, and exploring the differences between American education and the education they were accustomed to in Kuwait. It was a challenge for them and very overwhelming at times, but they are some of the most intelligent and driven children I have met, and they quickly began to make a name for themselves in the school.”
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the father, threw Molotov cocktails at people marching in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza on June 1 in Boulder. Fifteen people were injured, and one 84-year-old woman later died of the injuries she received in the attack. Days after the incident, Soliman’s family — his wife and five children — were detained by ICE and have remained in custody.
“DHS and ICE have taken the family of suspected Boulder, Colorado terrorist, and illegal alien, Mohamed Soliman, into ICE custody. This terrorist will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in a June 4, 2025 news release. “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. I am continuing to pray for the victims of this attack and their families. Justice will be served.”
Classmates shared their memories of the Soliman family. “I knew the 16-year-old son for two years and spent time with him in school playing soccer,” said Owen Watts. “He was always a good sport in both school and while on the field. He was a kind and fun kid who was constantly joking, having fun, and trying his hardest to succeed. He was a great teammate. On the field he worked hard and put in effort to try and be a better player. He was kind and even on the hard days made an effort to bring joy to the practices. He also brought these characteristics to the classroom. We had orchestra together, and he was always respectful to his other classmates and teachers.”
Habiba, who hoped to become a doctor, was remembered for her contributions to the Thomas MacLaren community. “Our school had a peer-mentor program called Big Brother, Big Sister, where high school students would meet each month to hang out with partner students in their school,” said classmate Lilah Pettey. “We played games, talked about challenges they were experiencing, and helped them with homework. The program built relationships across grades and contributed to the strong feeling that we were all in this together as a whole mind of our school. Habiba was a big sister every year she was with us, and she did a lot with the kids. I remember one day when nearly the entire senior class skipped the Big Brother, Big Sister meeting to work on our extremely difficult physics homework instead. But not Habiba. Though she was struggling with the same physics problems as the rest of us, she was pretty much the only one who met with her little sister because she didn’t want to let the younger student down.”
Community members expressed concern for the conditions of the ICE facility holding the Soliman family. “I feel compelled to speak because I have volunteered as a clinical social worker at the South Texas family residential center where they are currently being detained,” said Alexandria Newton. “Based on this experience, I have grave concerns about the effects of prolonged detention on families and children. This mother and her five children, including two who are five years old, have been confined well beyond what is generally understood to be the 20-day limit established under the Flores settlement agreement. They have been detained since June 2025. Extended confinement and detention settings has serious consequences for families. It is associated with increased rates of depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress. And for children, prolonged detention can have lasting long-term effects on their health and overall well-being.”
Community members shared a statement written by Habiba about the family’s experiences in ICE detention. “We’ve been fighting and struggling to get the most basic things, like food, medicine, and even clothes,” said Rebecca Hopkins, reading excerpts from Habiba’s statement. “Many people were hospitalized and rushed to the emergency because they weren’t given the treatment they needed. I struggled to get glasses for four months, and I’m currently staying without glasses. My brother had appendicitis, and when he went to the medical department he wasn’t even seen by a doctor. He was only checked by a nurse who told him, ‘Leave and come back in three days if you still have pain.’ He was finally taken to actually be seen after he threw up in the waiting room and begged the nurse that he couldn’t even walk from the pain.”
DHS has fought to keep the family in custody. “This is a proper end to an absurd legal effort on the plaintiff’s part,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a July, 2025 news release following an unsuccessful lawsuit to release the family. “Just like her terrorist husband, she and her children are here illegally and are rightfully in ICE custody for removal as a result.”
Read Habiba Soliman’s full statement:
