Texas Federal Judge Halts Deportation of El Gamal Family After 10+ Months at Dilley Detention

A Texas federal judge ordered ICE to halt the deportation of the El Gamal family — including 5-year-old twins held at Dilley Family Detention Center for more than 10 months — and to release them while they await an immigration judge’s decision on their asylum case. A plane carrying the family to Michigan was reportedly turned back to Colorado after the judge’s order. The judge agreed with a previous ruling that the family should be freed pending the asylum proceeding. The family was Egyptian; the mother and her five children had been re-arrested by ICE before the judge intervened.

The case is one in a continuing pattern of federal courts ordering halts to ICE deportation actions while the administration’s enforcement architecture pushes for accelerated removal. Cumulatively, ICE held 60,311 individuals in detention as of April 4, 2026, with 70.8% (42,722) holding no criminal conviction. Dilley specifically — operated by CoreCivic under a federal contract reactivated in early 2025 — has been the subject of multiple legal challenges over family-detention conditions. The El Gamal case fits the broader pattern documented in 2026-04-15–judge-halts-williamsport-ice-construction-nepa and ongoing court interventions in immigration cases where federal judges intervene to enforce due-process and asylum protections against accelerated administrative removal.