CNN – A federal judge on Wednesday issued an order to halt the deportation of the family of the Egyptian man charged after an antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado – a day after the White House said the family’s deportation was imminent.
According to the report by CNN, Judge Gordon P. Gallagher of the US District Court in Colorado directed the federal government to stop the deportation proceedings of Mohamed Soliman’s wife and five children. They were taken into ICE custody Tuesday.
“Defendants SHALL NOT REMOVE,” Soliman’s wife and her five children from the District of Colorado or the United States “unless or until this Court or the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit vacates this order,” Gallagher wrote in his order.
Gallagher further stated, “Moreover, the Court finds that deportation without process could work irreparable harm and an order must (be) issue(d) without notice due to the urgency this situation presents.”
The White House had said Tuesday the family was facing expedited removal from the United States, writing in a post on X, “THEY COULD BE DEPORTED AS EARLY AS TONIGHT.”
Soliman’s family members have not been charged in the attack. CNN has reached out to an attorney representing them.
The FBI identified Soliman as the lone suspect in the attack, in which he is accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to set people on fire at an event in downtown Boulder held in support of hostages in Gaza. He now faces a federal hate crime charge and state charges of attempted murder.
His family is being held in Florence, Colorado, and immigration officials had said they planned to transfer them to a detention facility in Texas, a law enforcement source said. It remains unclear to which country the family was intended to be deported.
Soliman, his 41-year-old wife, and their children —an 18-year-old daughter, two minor daughters, and two minor sons — are Egyptian citizens, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The family arrived to the US in August 2022 and were initially granted entry until February 2023, DHS said in a Wednesday statement. Soliman had applied for asylum in September 2022 in Denver, the agency said.
In 2023, Soliman received a two-year work authorization that expired in March of this year, a DHS official told CNN earlier this week.
Following the attack, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem directed multiple federal agencies under her purview to ramp up the review of immigration records and “crackdown on visa overstays,” DHS said Wednesday.
What we know about Colorado suspect’s life leading up to antisemitic attack
“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. I am continuing to pray for the victims of this attack and their families. Justice will be served,” Noem said in a statement Wednesday.
Soliman told detectives after he was arrested that “no one” knew about his attack plans and that “he never talked to his wife or family about it,” according to the affidavit for his arrest filed Sunday.
There were at least 15 victims, between the ages of 25 and 88, in the attack in Boulder, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Denver office. A dog was also injured, the agency said.
Soliman appeared in state court Monday and is expected to appear in state court again Thursday and in federal court on Friday. CNN has reached out to his attorney for comment.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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