A federal judge in Boulder, Colo., blocked the deportation of the family of the suspect involved in Sunday’s attack on pro-Israel demonstrators.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman was arrested for allegedly firebombing protesters who were marching peacefully in Boulder in support of the hostages in Gaza. The defendant shouted “Free Palestine” while attacking Jewish pedestrians with what the FBI described as a “makeshift flamethrower” and an incendiary device. In custody, he told authorities that he wanted to kill all Zionists, according to the Justice Department.
Gordon Gallagher, a judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, ruled on Wednesday that Soliman’s wife and five children being deported “without process could work irreparable harm, and an order must issue without notice due to the urgency this situation presents.”
The judge concluded that Soliman’s family couldn’t be deported until his court or the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated his order. He ordered all parties to appear at a hearing on June 13.
Kristi Noem, the U.S. secretary of homeland security, announced that Soliman’s family had been detained and that the administration is “investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it or if they provided support to it.”
She also referred to Soliman as a “terrorist” and “illegal alien.”
Soliman, and Egyptian, and his family were granted entry to the U.S. on a tourist visa valid from August 2022 to February 2023, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Soliman applied for asylum in September 2022.
“Soliman was allowed entry into the country under the Biden administration and overstayed his visa,” the department stated.
