An Egyptian family of six is experiencing severe mistreatment inside a notorious ICE detention center, according to a newly released trove of documents, which includes drawings from the family’s young children.
In one drawing, a group of stick figures stands outside a school, with a caption that reads, “I miss my bear.”
Another drawing shows the family looking skyward towards a flock of birds and reads, “When we will go home?”
In a third image, a figure stands inside a giant hand, as an ID badge looms overhead with the words “CoreCivic,” a reference to the company that operates the detention center in Dilley, Texas.
The documents come from the El Gamal family, who have been in federal custody since last summer, the longest of any family held in the center since it reopened last year under President Trump, according to their lawyer. That’s even though a longstanding federal settlement holds that parents and children generally shouldn’t be held in facilities longer than 20 days. (The administration has sought to challenge the settlement.)
"The most powerful adults in the world are subjecting the El Gamal children to systematic abuse for nine months and counting,” attorney Eric Lee, who represents the family, told The Independent in a statement. “It is farcical that the United States calls itself a democracy when the federal government deliberately ruins childhoods and strips young people of their innocence. We urge people all over the world to demand the El Gamal family's immediate release."
The Independent has contacted ICE and CoreCivic for comment.
The El Gamal family — mother Hayam El Gamal, and her five children, who range in age from 5 to 18 — have been in custody since shortly after Hayam El Gamal’s husband, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, allegedly attacked a group of mostly Jewish activists in Boulder, Colorado, who were marching to support the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. The attack wounded at least 29 people, and an 82-year-old later died of her injuries. (Soliman has pleaded not guilty in state court.)
The El Gamals have disavowed Soliman and say they were unaware of his alleged crimes, but they claim they are being “punished” for his actions all the same while behind bars.
Inside the facility, the family says they have faced major threats to their physical and mental health.
“This prolonged detention has and continues to destroy our lives. It is slowly killing us on the inside,” the family’s 16-year-old, listed in documents as O.S., wrote in a letter. “Our mental health is at great risk. It is rapidly deteriorating with every day we spend here. Our lives are without purpose. We are just waiting for this nightmare to end.”
One of the family’s 5-year-old twins has a frequent nightmare about being chased by someone who wants to hurt her, but she can’t escape because there are gates and fences in her way.
The family also alleges the food they have been served has contained mold and worms, and that doctors have brushed off their medical claims, including the 16-year-old’s “severe abdominal pain” and a “weird bump” under mother Hayam El Gamal’s rib cage.
She alleges medical staff merely gave her Ibuprofen and that she has been denied requests for a comprehensive scan, despite a doctor’s referral and a family history of cancer.
“I am still suffering and waiting,” Hayam wrote in one document, part of a cache of documents that has been filed with the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
The family came to the U.S. in August 2022 on a six-month tourist visa. They applied for asylum the following month, according to DHS.
After the June attack on the activists, their first asylum request was denied, and a second application without Soliman was dismissed in December.
The Dilley detention center gained notoriety earlier this year because of the case of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old who was arrested during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
A photo of the boy’s arrest, which took place as he stood in the winter cold in a Spider-Man backpack, quickly went viral.
His detention inspired protests, and a judge later ordered his release.
More recently, the facility saw a spate of measles cases and implemented a quarantine.
Under the Trump administration, the number of children in ICE detention has skyrocketed, increasing by more than six times since the president took office, according to an analysis by the Marshall Project.
The administration, which has showered immigration agencies with new funding and pushed to speed up deportations, has faced persistent allegations of poor treatment at detention centers.
Twenty-three people have died in ICE custody since October, putting this fiscal year on track to be the worst in more than two decades, an NPR analysis found.
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