The group Jews for Due Process held a rally for Hayam El Gamal and her five children in front of the Pioneers Museum Tuesday afternoon. 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 Sept. 29, 2022. The family settled in Colorado Springs. Habiba Soliman, the eldest daughter, graduated high school in 2025 and was awarded The Gazette’s “Best and Brightest” scholarship.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the father, threw Molotov cocktails at people marching in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza on June 1, 2025, in Boulder. Fifteen people were injured, and 82-year-old Karen Diamond later died of the injuries she received in the attack. Soliman pleaded guilty last week to a long list of state charges for the attack, and was sentenced to life in prison.
Days after the incident, the family was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and remained in custody until last month, but shortly after their release the family was detained and nearly deported by ICE when they reported for a mandatory immigration appointment in Denver. The El Gamal and her children were cleared of any connection to Soliman’s crimes, but a number of DHS officials, including former secretary Kristi Noem, referred to the family, which included five-year-old twins, as “terrorists.”
Members of Colorado Springs’ Jewish community gathered to speak on behalf of the family in the wake of Soliman’s sentencing.
“We find it despicable that our government continues to use our community’s purported safety as an excuse to persecute this family,” a member of the group read from a prepared statement. “Persecuting innocent people in our name, far from protecting Jews, uses us as a tool to further a political agenda that oppresses anyone deemed ‘other.’ It undermines real efforts to combat real anti-Semitism and seeks to turn us against our neighbors.
“We are familiar with that kind of agenda. It is the same one that countless authoritarian regimes have wielded against us throughout history, and we will not fall for it. Our tradition teaches us to love our neighbors and to welcome the stranger, as we have often been strangers in foreign lands.
“We stand in solidarity with the El Gamal family because they are being denied due process and punished for someone else’s crimes. We implore the public and our elected officials to do everything in your power to advocate for their fair treatment. We ask that their asylum case be allowed to play out in court, as our tradition teaches justice.”
Rabbi Iah Pillsbury from Temple Beit Torah commemorated Diamond’s death.
“Our tradition also forces us to acknowledge that there are some losses that cannot be healed,” she said. “During the first year of a person’s death, we gather together and say the Mourner’s Kaddish to remind ourselves that our world is broken. Our world is fundamentally wrong without them. Today, we also remember Karen Diamond, and her life and her legacy. In Judaism we say, ‘May their memory be for a blessing.’ May each of our lives outlive ourselves and transform the world with goodness and with justice. And so we join together with the words of the Mourner’s Kaddish on behalf of Karen Diamond, thinking of how we can transform this tragedy, this awful, awful pain and heartbreak and loss into moments of blessing, of goodness, and of justice.”
A written statement from El Gamal shared her and her family’s condolences with the Jewish community.
“I wanted to reach out and let you know how deeply saddened my family and I continue to be,” she wrote. “What my ex-husband did was a horrendous and horrible act that goes against everything my children and I believe in. Violence is never justified. We do not judge people based on their color, their ethnicity, or their religion. I truly believe that if every child were raised to respect every human being, regardless of the differences, the world would be a much kinder place. I want to speak specifically to the family of Karen Diamond. My heart breaks for you in a way that I struggle to put into words. I cannot fathom how hard these months have been for you all, of the strength it has taken to navigate this loss. To lose her in such a way is a pain no family should ever have to bear, and I grieve for the future and the peace that was taken from all of you. To every victim: Please know that your pain is seen and that your life is precious. My family and I wish you peace, healing, and the strength to move forward.”
Among the community members who attended the event was Stephanie Vigil, a former Colorado House representative and current candidate for her old seat.
“I had an invitation from a few different members of the community, some Jewish faith leaders and some other folks,” said Vigil. “I’ve been pretty flabbergasted watching what’s been done to the El Gamal family, like so many other folks in the community, and it’s always encouraging to me to see folks in minority faith communities like the Jewish community. They don’t have to be used in this way, right? This is a very classic authoritarian move to pick one excluded minority group and pit it against another, and have people fighting with each other. And it’s a tale as old as time, and unfortunately it works on a lot of people, but today we show up in a diverse group and say ‘we’re not gonna stand for that.’”
Vigil supports legislation to provide strengthened protections for immigrants and citizens against federal agents.
“It really shouldn’t be the case that you’re just sort of exempt from abiding by the U.S. Constitution because you’re a federal agent acting in your capacity,” said Vigil. “The whole point of these protections is to protect you from government overreach and specifically in instances where it might be really tempting to do so, and try to chalk it up as a national security or public safety mechanism. These are exactly the sorts of tricks that they use and we need extra guardrails to defend people against it.”
In March, Colorado’s House Judiciary Committee killed House Bill 26-1275, which would have required local police to intervene when ICE agents use excessive force. The legislature did pass Senate Bill 26-005, which could allow Colorado residents to sue federal immigration officers in state court over alleged constitutional rights violations.
“Children are being detained and Americans are being killed in the streets. We must do more to protect Coloradans from the inhumane and deadly tactics of federal agents and Trump’s immigration overreach,” said Rep. Yara Zokaie (D-Fort Collins), one of the bill’s sponsors, in a news release. “No one is above the law, and this bill creates recourse when your Constitutional rights are violated by the federal government.”
Additionally, this week a federal judge ruled that immigration officers in Colorado have violated his order limiting when they can arrest people without a warrant as part of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado over arrests of people accidentally caught up in immigration enforcement actions.
