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joaquin castro
Judge Orders ICE to Release Family Who Spoke Out About Medical Neglect, Poor Conditions in Detention
Hayam El Gamal and her five children were detained last June after her husband was charged in connection with an attack in Colorado.
Apr 21, 2026
A lawyer for a family that has spent close to a year at an immigration detention center in Texas at the insistence of the Trump administration demanded the family's release late Monday after a federal magistrate judge found that "requiring them to endure further detention... risks compounding the constitutional violation."
“A federal court has determined [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement]'s prolonged detention of this family violates the Constitution,” the lawyer, Eric Lee, told The Houston Chronicle. “Nevertheless, ICE has not yet released the family. No more delays, no more obfuscations: release the El Gamal family immediately."
Hayam El Gamal and her five children, including five-year-old twins, were detained last June after her husband, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was charged in connection with a firebombing attack that targeted protesters who were calling for the release of Israeli hostages who had been kidnapped in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack.
The family has reportedly been detained longer than any other immigrant family under the Trump administration. Under court-mandated restrictions, the federal government is not permitted to detain children longer than 20 days.
El Gamal entered divorce proceedings with her husband after his arrest and is legally separated from him. She has maintained that she and her children knew nothing about his plans to attack the protesters, but the White House's official account on the social media platform X threatened the family with deportation after they were detained.
“Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon,” the White House said last June. Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also said the Department of Homeland Security was investigating what the family knew about the attack.
Three months after they were taken to Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas, an immigration judge determined last September that the Egyptian family did not pose a threat to the public and ordered them released on a $15,000 bond, but the Board of Immigration Appeals—part of the executive branch—ordered the judge to hold a new hearing and he later reversed his decision.
Monday's ruling came days after El Gamal was taken to a local emergency room with a lump in her chest; Lee said in court filings that El Gamal had not been given proper medical attention at Dilley. Doctors at the local hospital found fluid around El Gamal's heart but did not determine the cause of the lump. Lee told the Chronicle that ensuring El Gamal, who fears the lump could be cancerous due to her family history and medical neglect at the facility, gets urgent medical care following her release is a top priority.
The family has raised alarm for months about medical neglect, which has been reported at numerous ICE facilities, as well as rotten food and unsafe drinking water.
"I have seen with my own eyes, food that has mold in it. I even saw food with actual worms," El Gamal's 16-year-old son wrote in a letter shared publicly by Lee earlier this year. He also said he suffered "severe abdominal pain" and was unable to walk to the facility's medical unit. He was finally taken to the unit hours later in a wheelchair, but was told by a nurse, "I can’t help you. Go and come back if you still have pain in 3 days." He later vomited and was taken to an emergency room where it was determined he had appendicitis.
A friend of El Gamal's eldest child was among those who spoke out on behalf of the family at a protest at Dilley on Sunday and read from a letter written by Hayam El Gamal.
"My kids, two of whom are five years old, have been struggling to live in a place that isn't suitable for such long periods of time," the young woman read. "We didn't do anything to deserve this. Children shouldn't be punished for their parents' actions."
Friends of the family in Colorado Springs, where they lived before their detention, also organized a rally over the weekend.
"Reminder that children shouldn't have to organize protests to release their classmates from prolonged federal detention!" said Lee.
US Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who has advocated for the El Gamal family and other families detained at Dilley, noted that one of El Gamal's five-year-old children was also denied dental care.
Lee told The Texas Tribune that conditions have deteriorated for the El Gamal family since they began speaking out about their treatment at Dilley. The eldest daughter in the family, 18-year-old Habiba Soliman, was separated from her mother and siblings after telling reporters about the conditions at the center.
The attorney told NBC News that the family "feels vindicated" by the judge's decision, but "they have gone through enough in the last 10 and a half months of detention to know it’s not over yet, because of how brazen and sadistic the White House has been to this family and five innocent children."
"They're still detained," said Lee Monday night. "Release the El Gamal family immediately!"
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'Monstrous': ICE Deports 2-Month-Old Juan Nicolás Hours After Hospitalization
"To unnecessarily deport a sick baby and his entire family is heinous," said US Rep. Joaquin Castro.
Feb 18, 2026
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported 2-month-old Juan Nicolás to Mexico—along with his 16-month-old sister, mother, and father—following the infant's hospitalization for respiratory issues and vomiting, which he suffered after spending more than three weeks in a Texas detention center run by the notorious private prison firm CoreCivic.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who has been pushing the Trump administration to release Juan and his family, confirmed late Tuesday that they were deported after speaking with the family's attorney, who told the lawmaker that ICE removed them from the US "with only the money that they had in their commissary—a total of $190." Castro wrote that "to unnecessarily deport a sick baby and his entire family is heinous."
"My staff and I are in contact with Juan’s family," Castro added. "We are laser-focused on tracking them down, holding ICE accountable for this monstrous action, demanding specific details on their whereabouts and well-being, and ensuring their safety."
According to Migrant Insider's Pablo Manríquez, Juan Nicolás "has been fighting respiratory illness in a facility where measles recently walked through the door, where mothers report struggling to get clean water for formula, where sick children cycle through ibuprofen and basic antibiotics until they deteriorate badly enough that someone finally calls an ambulance."
"Which is what happened Monday night. An ambulance came," Manríquez wrote. "It was, depending on how you look at it, either a rescue or an admission of guilt."
Juan's mother told Castro that the baby is suffering from bronchitis. "We are all deeply concerned that Juan and his mom will be deported and that Juan’s health will continue to deteriorate," the Texas Democrat wrote Tuesday afternoon. "His life is in danger because of ICE’s monstrous cruelty."
Univision journalist Lidia Terrazas crossed into Mexico and located Juan and his family in the hours following their deportation. The reporter later posted a photo with Juan on Instagram.
🚨BREAKING: The great @LidiaTerrazas has found Juan Nicolás, the two-month-old ICE deported today to Mexico.
Update coming tomorrow at https://t.co/HpQYb2bjiA https://t.co/enYyUH0KzO pic.twitter.com/vP2tqMqvNd
— Pablo Manríquez (@PabloReports) February 18, 2026
The number of children held in ICE detention has skyrocketed during President Donald Trump's second White House term, rising more than sixfold. A recent analysis by The Marshall Project found that "on some days, ICE held 400 children or more."
"They are literally being treated as prisoners," Castro said after spending more than two hours inside the CoreCivic facility in Dilley, Texas last month. "This is a monstrous machine."
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2-Month-Old Infant Juan Nicolás Rushed From Texas Detention Center to Hospital
The hospitalization came two days after the baby had a previous medical episode in which he was reportedly "choking on his own vomit."
Feb 17, 2026
As advocates including US Rep. Joaquin Castro demanded the immediate release of a 2-month-old baby, Juan Nicolás, who has been detained with his mother at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas for close to half of his young life, the infant was rushed to a hospital early in the morning on Tuesday after suffering from respiratory issues and vomiting in recent days.
Lidia Terrezas, a reporter for Univision, spoke to officials at the Dilley detention center and reported in an Instagram video that Juan Nicolás had been transported via ambulance at about 7:00 pm Central time. KABB Fox News 29 in San Antonio reported Tuesday morning that the baby had been "treated and released."
"It's unclear what happened for them to take him to the hospital," said Terrezas. "It is my understanding that he was taken by ambulance. So at some point the decision was made that he should be taken to a hospital immediately."
The reported hospitalization came two days after the baby had "a medical episode at approximately 3:00 am Saturday," according to the San Antonio Current, and hours after Castro (D-Texas) provided an update about the infant's condition after being detained at Dilley nearly a month ago.
"He's been sick consistently," said Castro in a video posted on X. "He was vomiting, he's been having respiratory issues. They came to check on him when he was having these issues, but they couldn't take him to see a doctor because there was no doctor in the early morning hours at Dilley."
During an earlier visit to Dilley, Castro saw the facility's medical wing, complete with beds for children and families who need medical attention at the center built to hold up to 2,400 people—but witnessed no actual medical providers working there.
"These kids should be released, and these folks who have committed no crime should not be in this trailer prison," said Castro.
Dilley Update: Maria Isabella (7) released on her birthday but Juan Nicolás (2 mo) remains imprisoned in Dilley. Please keep speaking up! #FreeOurChildren #DilleyTrailerPrison pic.twitter.com/lIDRLnsUOG
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) February 16, 2026
In his earlier medical episode, Juan Nicolás was described as "choking on his own vomit."
"This baby in particular is very vulnerable," said Castro Monday. "For those of you that are parents... you know how vulnerable kids are at the age of 2 months. And so I have been pressing [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] hard to let Juan Nicolás go free... They are on notice that he has been sick, that they don't have the medical capacity to treat him properly, and that his life, if this continues, could be in danger."
CoreCivic, the private prison company that runs Dilley, claims the medical wing is fully staffed and offers 24/7 care, according to NBC News Channel 4 in San Antonio.
But Castro's report of the facility's failure to provide medical care is not incongruous with numerous reports of medical neglect at other detention centers where ICE is detaining tens of thousands of people, including about 170 children on any given day, on average.
Detainees have reported being unable to access medical care at facilities including Krome North Service Processing Center in Florida; North Lake Processing Center in Michigan, where an immigrant named Nenko Stanev Gantchev was found dead in his cell in December; and Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, where at least three people have died in 44 days recently.
El País reported on Monday on medical neglect of children at Dilley. A 5-year-old boy suffered acute appendicitis "with severe pain," according to the newspaper.
"The staff member responsible for attending to him told his mother to come back in three days if the pain continued," reported El País. "He lay on the floor in agony for hours until, after they saw him vomiting, he was finally taken to a doctor and eventually underwent surgery. After he was discharged from the hospital, it was difficult to obtain the medication he had been prescribed."
The 1997 Flores Agreement set a 20-day maximum for children to be held in immigration detention, but with Juan Nicolás detained for about three and a half weeks, according to Castro, the baby is one of hundreds of children who have been held at Dilley for at least a month.
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