Jewish leaders are rallying in support of the El Gamal family as they begin rebuilding their lives in Colorado after spending nearly a year in federal detention.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Hayam El Gamal and her five children, aged 5-18, after Hayam’s then-husband, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, tossed Molotov cocktails into a crowd of Jewish demonstrators in Boulder in June 2025, killing a woman and injuring more than a dozen others.

Soliman, who yelled, “Free Palestine!” before hurling the firebombs, is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to murder and other charges related to the attack. The FBI cleared the family of any involvement in the firebombing.

White House officials are trying to deport the family, who entered the U.S. on now-expired tourist visas in 2022, and have labeled them as associates of a terrorist, but community members are pushing back.

Over 100 civic leaders signed a joint statement that welcomed the El Gamals home. It also condemned ICE’s treatment of the family, calling the agency’s attempt to deport them after their release an abduction.

“It’s about justice. It’s about due process. It’s super simple. We just want them to be treated fairly and the same way everybody should be treated,” said Rabbi Iah Pillsbury of Temple Beit Torah in Colorado Springs.

Pillsbury and a newly formed group called Jews for Due Process rallied in support of the family at the Pioneers Museum this month, arguing that they shouldn’t be punished for crimes that a now estranged relative committed.

Jewish community rallied in support of El Gamal family in Colorado Springs yesterday. Pls watch/share.

"We find it despicable that our gvmt continues to use our community's purported safety as an excuse to persecute this family. We stand in solidarity with the El Gamal family!" pic.twitter.com/dC5Alncwhw

— Eric Lee (@EricLeeAtty) May 13, 2026

The rabbi said the demonstration included “a wide array of the city’s Jewish community.”

Pillsbury led prayers for the family and Karen Diamond, the 82-year-old woman killed in the attack. The group also shared a written statement from Hayam El Gamal, who apologized to the victims of the attack and expressed sympathy for Diamond and her family.

“I find it despicable and outrageous the government continues to use my community’s safety as an excuse to go after an innocent family,” organizer Erin Adlerstein told The Gazette, adding that the Trump administration is using the attack to further its political agenda.

At least two other rabbis from Denver signed the joint statement, including Rabbi Cantor Kim Harris of the B’nai Chaim synagogue in Dakota Ridge.

“It is precisely because I am a Jewish woman, and I am a rabbi, that I signed,” Harris told The Gazette. “Hayam and her children have experienced unfathomable trauma: assumed guilt by association, being snatched from their homes, languishing in prison in a horrible, abusive facility and almost deported. They deserve an apology, restitution and the safety to live their lives peacefully.”

The Jewish community’s efforts are piggybacking off the Neighbors of Faith and Conviction, a Colorado Springs group composed of friends, former classmates and teachers of the El Gamals. The group has supported the family for months, visiting them during their detainment, raising over $100,000 for the El Gamals’ medical expenses and daily living costs, and getting more than 1,100 people to sign a petition when the family was still fighting for their release.

Several Colorado politicians have spoken out against the government’s use of ICE, including state Rep. Regina English, D-Colorado Springs.

In an interview with The Gazette, English called the reports of the El Gamals’ treatment inside an ICE facility “deeply disturbing.” She likened the facilities to concentration camps and said the government shouldn’t detain children.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colorado Springs, expressed his faith in Trump and his administration to The Gazette in January. He said Trump’s efforts have helped protect the community and pushed back against sanctuary policies embraced by Denver and other cities.

Crank’s office did not respond to The Gazette’s request for an interview for this article.

The El Paso County commissioners said they’ve seen how sanctuary policies and weak enforcement contribute to “rising threats” in the community and commended the increased federal presence in Colorado.

“Informally, the Board has observed increased enforcement efforts since President Trump’s reelection and welcomes his commitment to prioritizing public safety and upholding the rule of law,” the board collectively stated in an email in January. 

English pushed back on the claim that enforcement is helping the community, saying ICE has created only fear and division among people.

“The way they’re going about things, it’s rogue. When you have people that are too scared to go to work, send their kids to school or even answer their doors and come out in public — that’s problematic,” she said.

The El Gamals were detained in Dilley, Texas, for almost 11 months before being released in April, making it the longest ICE detention of a family under the Trump administration, according to reporting from Reuters.

Shortly after the family was released from ICE custody, federal agents detained them again and put them on a plane bound for Egypt. A federal judge granted an emergency order that forced the plane to turn around, and the family is now living with a sponsor in Colorado.

It “appears that the dice were loaded from the beginning” for the family, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Chestney of Texas wrote in court documents in late April. She said some evidence suggests the government “improperly interfered” in the El Gamals’ bond hearings, when an immigration judge found they were not subject to mandatory detention under the law.

Chestney found it “equally as concerning” that the same immigration judge later reversed that decision based on nearly identical evidence after White House leadership ordered the Board of Immigration Appeals to dismiss the family’s bond appeal.

That information led her to recommend that the family be released, which another federal judge ordered days later.

The Gazette’s Cleo Westin contributed to this report.