Family longest held in US immigration detention re-arrested after release
Lawyers say El Gamal family detained by Trump administration hours after returning home from 10-month detention.
A United States federal court has blocked the administration of United States President Donald Trump from deporting a woman and her five children following their release from immigration detention.
Hayam El Gamal and her five children, ranging in age from five to 18 years old, had been held for 10 months prior to their release earlier this week following a judge’s order.
They had been held in detention for the longest of any known family during Trump’s second term in office,
immigration authorities again detained the family on Saturday and sought to swiftly deport them, according to their lawyer.
“The Trump administration has kidnapped the El Gamal family in violation of a federal court order from the Western District of Texas, which ordered them Thursday not to detain or remove the family from the United States,” a statement from the family lawyers, shared by lawyer Eric Lee, said.
“The attempt to remove the El Gamal family is in violation of a federal court order and must be halted immediately,” it adds.
Lee said shortly after that US District Judge Fred Biery, who ordered the family’s initial release on Thursday, had granted an emergency order on Saturday barring their removal.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.