The alleged attacker in Sunday’s firebombing of a pro-Israel vigil in Boulder, Colo., overstayed his visa and was subsequently granted a work permit by the Biden administration, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller said on Monday.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian national, is accused of setting elderly demonstrators on fire during a peaceful “Run for Their Lives” walk calling for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Eight people were wounded in the attack, which Colorado officials say appears to have been motivated by antisemitic hate and involved “a makeshift flamethrower” as well as an incendiary device that was thrown into the crowd.
Soliman was arrested at the scene and remains in custody at Boulder County Jail. The FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center are investigating the incident as an act of “ideologically motivated violence.”
Miller, a longtime critic of the Biden administration’s immigration policies, highlighted the case as a failure of vetting and enforcement.
“The Biden Admin granted the alien a visa and then, when he illegally overstayed, they gave him a work permit,” Miller wrote on X, adding, “Immigration security is national security. No more hostile migration. Keep them out and send them back.”
A terror attack was committed in Boulder, Colorado by an illegal alien. He was granted a tourist visa by the Biden Administration and then he illegally overstayed that visa. In response, the Biden Administration gave him a work permit.
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) June 2, 2025
Suicidal migration must be fully reversed.
Lawmakers and immigration experts are demanding answers from USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) and ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) on how Soliman’s asylum application was allowed to proceed despite a clear visa overstay.
Federal officials confirmed Soliman entered the United States in August 2022 on a temporary B1/B2 visitor visa, which expired in February 2023, Fox News reported. Instead of leaving the country, he applied for asylum and was issued a work permit the following month, despite violating his visa terms.
Witnesses reported that Soliman hurled incendiary devices at rally participants while shouting “Free Palestine” and “We have to end Zionists.” The victims, who ranged in age from 52 to 88, had been participating in a weekly event organized by Run for Their Lives, a grassroots movement advocating for the release of the 58 Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
“This is not a political protest—this is terrorism,” said Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. “Terror against Jews is not limited to Gaza. It is now burning in the streets of America.”
Video reviewed by the Anti-Defamation League captured Soliman shouting antisemitic slogans, including, “How many children you killed?” as he launched the attack.
The attack follows the May 21 slaying of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., allegedly by a radicalized anti-Israel activist, and comes after months of anti-Israel agitation on campuses and in the streets.
“The nonstop demonization of Israel and Zionism has created a climate where physical attacks, even murder, of Jews is inevitable,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and global social action director at the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Gov. Jared Polis, both Jewish, called the attack “a hate crime” and “a heinous act of terror.”
The FBI is continuing to search a “vehicle of interest” tied to Soliman and executed a court-authorized raid in Colorado’s El Paso County, Fox reported. Federal terrorism charges are expected in the coming days.
