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Federal judge blocks deportation of family of man charged in Boulder attack

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Chase Woodruff
(Colorado Newsline)

A federal judge in Denver Wednesday issued an order blocking the Trump administration from carrying out the immediate deportation of the family of the man accused of attacking more than a dozen people in Boulder on Sunday with incendiary devices.

The suspect in the attack, 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, is an Egyptian citizen and Colorado Springs resident who authorities say was living in the U.S. unlawfully. He faces charges including 16 counts of attempted murder and a federal hate crime. Soliman allegedly told police that he targeted a demonstration on Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall held by Run For Their Lives, which organizes events calling for the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, because he wanted to “kill all Zionist people.”

Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty’s office said the number of victims in the attack had risen to 15 people ranging in age from 25 to 88, along with one dog. No new information was released Wednesday about multiple victims who were hospitalized as a result of the attack, some with severe burns.

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Closeup of a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services card. A United Sates flag is in the background.
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The Department of Homeland Security Tuesday announced that it had detained Soliman’s wife and five children and was “processing (them) for removal proceedings from the U.S.” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem also said in a statement that the department was “investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack.”

Soliman told investigators that “no one knew about his plans and he never talked to his wife or family about it,” according to an arrest warrant. Federal law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at Soliman’s residence Sunday night, and his family members were described by FBI officials as cooperative.

In a temporary restraining order issued Wednesday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Gordon P. Gallagher blocked the Trump administration from removing Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, or his five children “from the District of Colorado or the United States.” He set a hearing in the case, which was filed as a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, for June 13.

“The Court finds that deportation without process could work irreparable harm and an order must issue without notice due to the urgency this situation presents,” Gallagher wrote.

DHS officials have said that Soliman entered the country in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, and filed an asylum claim in September 2022. The department’s statement Tuesday identified his family members as Egyptian citizens but did not contain specific information about their immigration statuses.

The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition in a Tuesday statement called the Boulder attack a “heinous act of antisemitism” but accused some of exploiting the tragedy to push an anti-immigrant agenda.

“Even as people mourn, some have chosen to weaponize the alleged immigration status of the attacker to stoke fear and division,” the coalition’s statement said. “Let us be clear: immigration status is not a cause of violence. Hate is. When we focus on whether someone is undocumented rather than the root causes of this attack — antisemitism, xenophobia, and bigotry — we risk fueling the same cycles of hate that lead to these tragedies in the first place.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis gathered with faith and community leaders near the scene of the attack on Pearl Street Wednesday to “stand against hate.”

“Violence in any form has no place in Colorado, and we know that to move forward we must join together in our common humanity to ensure peace in our communities, take care of one another, and emerge stronger,” Polis said. “My heart is with those impacted by this devastating event, and we are continuing to actively work with local and state law enforcement to protect our communities and keep people safe.”