DENVER (KDVR) The wife of a man accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at demonstrators in Colorado seeking the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza spoke out for the first time on Wednesday.

Hayam El Gamal, 41, is the wife of 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Farag Soliman. Soliman appeared in federal court in Denver on Wednesday and is facing more than 100 state charges for the June 1 attack on a shopping center in Boulder, Colorado, as well as a federal hate crime charge.

She was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement a few days after the attack, alongside the couple’s five children. The family was then transported to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in West Texas, and is currently still stateside due to a temporary restraining order preventing the family’s deportation from the country.

She released a statement Wednesday through her attorney, Eric Lee. He stated on the social platform X that on Wednesday, a federal judge extended the temporary restraining order preventing the family’s deportation.

“My five children and I are in total shock over what they say my husband did in Boulder, Colorado earlier this month,” her statement begins. “So many lives were ruined on that day. There is never an excuse for hurting innocent people. We have been cooperating with the authorities, who are trying their best to get to the bottom of this. We send our love to the many families who are suffering as a result of the attack.”

affiliate KDVR asked the U.S. Department of Justice for comment on the letter, and was told the agency has no comment.

Letter details conditions inside Texas detention facility

El Gamal said she and her children were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and put on a flight to Texas “in the middle of the night,” and have been in immigration jail for two weeks.

“This includes my two four-year-old children, my seven-year-old, my fifteen-year-old and my oldest daughter, who just turned eighteen in jail,” El Gamal shared through her attorney. “We are grieving, and we are suffering. We are treated like animals by the officers, who told us we are being punished for what my husband is accused of doing.

“But why punish me? Why punish my four-year-old children? Why punish any of us, who did nothing wrong?” El Gamal wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security said Soliman, his wife and his five children came to the U.S. on Aug. 27, 2022, on a B2 visa and were granted entry until Feb. 26, 2023. Court documents filed last week note that the family entered the U.S. with B1 visitor visas in 2022. A federal judge noted in court documents filed last week that because they’ve been in the U.S. uninterrupted for over two years, they “are therefore not subject to expedited removal.”

B2 visas are used for tourism, such as visiting family or receiving medical treatment, according to the U.S. government. B1 visas are used for business purposes, such as attending conferences.

On Sept. 29, 2022, Soliman filed for asylum, listing his wife and five children as dependents, in Denver, and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that’s also expired now.

The petition provided to a federal judge who issued his opinion last week on the family’s deportation also said that El Gamal is a network engineer with a pending EB2 visa, which is given to professionals with advanced degrees. It says that she and her children are also included in Soliman’s still-pending asylum application.

The family has not been charged in the attack. All are Egyptian citizens.

Mother details efforts to join community in the US

El Gamal said that the family has “tried to do everything right” in the three years since they came to America, saying they had obtained work permits and learned English, and said she and her daughter had volunteered teaching English to immigrants.

“We have always tried to be good neighbors, cooking food for those around us regardless of whether they are Muslim, Christian or Jewish,” El Gamal wrote. “I do not judge anyone based on his religion. If your heart is good, that’s enough.”

Soliman’s 18-year-old daughter had just graduated from high school in Colorado Springs and wanted to study medicine. She was recognized by the Colorado Springs Gazette as a “Best and Brightest” scholarship recipient who said “coming to the USA has fundamentally changed me,” adding, “most importantly, I came to appreciate that family is the unchanging support.”

El Gamal said Wednesday in her letter that her oldest daughter also volunteered at a hospital and earned a 4.5 GPA in high school. She said her daughter has dreams of becoming a doctor in the U.S.

“My kids want to go to school, they want to see their friends and deal with their grief from recent weeks,” the mother said. “But here they can’t sleep. They cry throughout the day, asking me, ‘When will we get to go home?'”

El Gamal said the family, while first detained by ICE, were “forced to watch officials rough-up another detainee,” and said her children fear that the violence will be used against them as well. She said that while incarcerated in the Texas facility, “you can’t be human.”

“Where you are always being watched,” she wrote. “Where you are woken up in the middle of the night by guards and given food fit for animals.”

She ended her letter by asking how much longer they will be kept there for what she said they did not do.

“How much longer until the damage to my children is irreversible?” El Gamal asked. “It has been so hard for me to stay strong for my kids. I’m so tired. I ask the American people, with all my heart, to listen to our story and help us.”