BOULDER, Colo. — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to immediately halt deportation proceedings against the wife and five children of a man charged in the firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, responding to what the judge called an urgent situation to ensure the protection of the family's constitutional rights.
U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher granted a request from the family of Mohamed Sabry Soliman to block their deportation, after U.S. immigration officials took them into federal custody Tuesday.
"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 in the order.
The family members have not been charged in the attack on a group demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and state counts of attempted murder in the Sunday attack in downtown Boulder.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Wednesday that the family were being processed for removal proceedings. It's rare that family members of a person accused of a crime are detained and threatened with deportation.
"It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives," attorneys for the family wrote in the lawsuit. "Such methods of collective or family punishment violates the very foundations of a democratic justice system."
Soliman's wife, 18-year-old daughter, two minor sons and two minor daughters all are Egyptian citizens, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
"We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it," Noem said in a statement.
Noem also said federal authorities would immediately crack down on people who overstay their visas, in response to the Boulder attack.
Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his planned attack, according to court documents that, at times, spelled his name as "Mohammed." Soliman's wife said she was "shocked" to learn her husband had been arrested in the attack, according to the lawsuit.
Victims increased to 15 people and a dog. Earlier Wednesday, authorities raised the number of people injured in the attack from 12 to 15, plus a dog.
Boulder County officials said in a news release that the victims include eight women and seven men ranging in age from 25 to 88. The Associated Press on Wednesday sent an email to prosecutors seeking more details on the newly identified victims.
Soliman had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in Sunday's demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling "Free Palestine," police said. Soliman, an Egyptian man who federal authorities say has been living in the U.S. illegally, didn't carry out his full plan "because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before," police wrote in an affidavit.
According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told police he was driven by a desire "to kill all Zionist people" — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel. Authorities said he expressed no remorse about the attack.
A vigil is scheduled for Wednesday evening at the local Jewish community center.
Defendant's immigration status
Soliman was born in el-Motamedia, an Egyptian farming village in the Nile Delta province of Gharbia, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Cairo, according to an Egyptian security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media.
Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, Soliman spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents.
Soliman arrived in the U.S. in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X. She said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that has also expired.
Hundreds of thousands of people overstay their visas each year in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security reports.
The case against Soliman
Soliman told authorities that he had been planning the attack for a year and was waiting for his daughter to graduate before carrying it out, the affidavit said.
A newspaper in Colorado Springs that profiled one of Soliman's children in April noted the family's journey from Egypt to Kuwait and then to the U.S. It said after initially struggling in school, his daughter landed academic honors and volunteered at a local hospital.
Soliman has been charged with a federal hate crime as well as attempted murder counts at the state level, but authorities say additional charges could come. He's being held in a county jail on a $10 million cash bond and is scheduled to make an appearance in state court on Thursday.
His attorney, Kathryn Herold, declined to comment after a state court hearing Monday. Public defenders' policy prohibits speaking to the media.
Witnesses and police have said Soliman set himself on fire as he hurled the second incendiary device. Authorities said they believe Soliman acted alone. Although they did not elaborate on the nature of his injuries, a booking photo showed him with a large bandage over one ear.
The attack unfolded against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States. It happened at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot and barely a week after a man who also yelled "Free Palestine" was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
Six victims hospitalized
The victims ranged in age from 25 to 88, and were members of the volunteer group called Run For Their Lives who were holding their weekly demonstration.
No new details were released Wednesday about three victims who were sent to the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
"They have requested privacy to heal," spokesperson Kelli Christensen said in an email.
One of the victims was a child when her family fled the Nazis during the Holocaust, said Ginger Delgado of the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office. Delgado is acting as a spokesperson for the family of the woman, who doesn't want her name used.
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