President Donald Trump has suffered two legal blows to his deportation agenda in the courts within hours of each other.
One legal blow came from Judge Stephanie Haines, a Trump appointee in Pennsylvania, who told the White House they could not give people a seven-day warning prior to deportation. They must give at least 21 days’ notice.
The other came from Judge Orlando Garcia who ruled that the Trump administration cannot immediately deport the family of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the man accused of attacking a march for Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colorado.
An attorney for Soliman’s family has been contacted via email for comment.
Why It Matters
The Trump administration’s sweeping agenda has found itself subject to hundreds of court cases, and much of the president’s tentpole agenda has been slowed or halted by judges since he took office.
What To Know
The case in Pennsylvania revolved around the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, a declaration made by the president to facilitate mass deportations under the claim that there was a national immigration emergency.
In May, Haines ruled that the president can invoke the Alien Enemies Act in regard to Venezuelan migrants, due to what she referred to as an “incursion” of members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
However, in the same ruling, Haines stated that all people subject to deportation still have the right to due process. Now, she is upholding that previous judgment by saying the Trump administration is still not allowing enough time for people subject to deportation to see a judge.
The Trump administration had said in this case that the plaintiff, a Venezuelan man slated for deportation, should be deported within seven days. Haines ruled that seven days is not enough time to get a court hearing, therefore being deported within seven days would violate someone’s right to due process.
The case in Texas involves the family of the accused Boulder fire bomber who has been granted another temporary restraining order to prevent their impending deportation from the U.S.
According to the Trump administration, Soliman and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 2022 and he overstayed his visa while applying for asylum status.
He is now in jail awaiting trial, and his wife and five children were taken from their Colorado home to a detention facility in Texas, which his wife, Hayam El Gamal, described as a “jail in Texas, where you can’t be human. Where you are always being watched. Where you are woken up in the middle of the night by guards and given food fit for animals.”
El Gamal has said she and her children are being punished in a facility in response to their father’s alleged crime which they knew nothing about.
In a public statement made via her lawyer, she said: “But why punish me? Why punish my 4-year-old children? Why punish any of us, who did nothing wrong?”
She and her children’s potential deportations have been stalled for at least 14 days by Garcia.
What People Are Saying
Judge Stephanie Haines ruling: “Having considered the Supreme Court‘s long-standing holding that “‘no person shall be’ removed from the United States ‘without opportunity at some point to be heard[,]’ and after again weighing the realities of ICE removal proceedings, the risk of errant removals, and the burden upon the Government, the court reaffirms its finding that the Due Process Clause mandates the notice requirements that this court articulated in A.S.R, regardless of the contours of the distinguishable expedited-removal process.”
Hayam El Gamal’s public statement: “All [my children] want is to be home, to be in school, to have privacy, to sleep in their own beds, to have their mother make them a home-cooked meal, to help them grieve and get through these terrible weeks.”
1st public statement from Hayam El Gamal, wife of alleged Boulder attacker, speaking fr Dilley Family Detention Ctr where she & 5 children have been detained for 2 weeks.Just now, a fed’l judge extended a temporary restraining order barring Trump from deporting the family.1/2 pic.twitter.com/6qnFQk3TZ7
— Eric Lee (@EricLeeAtty) June 18, 2025
What Happens Next
Whether the Trump administration will abide by rulings over giving undocumented people 21 days’ notice prior to potential deportation remains to be seen. Soliman’s family will stay in ICE detention for at least two more weeks and may be granted another temporary restraining order at the end of this two-week period. They will have a hearing prior to the expiration of the order.
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