Trump admin cannot deport Colorado attack suspect family

A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily barred the Trump administration from deporting the wife and five children of Mohamed Soliman, the Egyptian national accused of attacking a group of demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, with a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails.

The order blocking the removal of Soliman’s family came a day after they were taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and as the Department of Homeland Security said that ICE was processing the family for removal proceedings from the United States.

The White House’s official X account tweeted about the family’s detention Tuesday, writing, “THEY COULD BE DEPORTED AS EARLY AS TONIGHT.”

In his order in U.S. District Court in Colorado barring their deportation, Judge Gordon Gallagher wrote, “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 scheduled a hearing in the case for June 13.

“It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives,” lawyers for the family wrote in their petition for a writ of habeas corpus earlier Wednesday, which led to Gallagher’s order.

“Such methods of collective or family punishment violates the very foundations of a democratic justice system.”

Habeas petitions seek to challenge the legality of a person’s detention, and the right to file them are part of the U.S. Constitution.

Stephen Miller, the White House’s top immigration advisor, last month said that President Donald Trump was “actively looking” at suspending the right to petition for habeas corpus for immigrants.

Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, is a 41-year-old Egyptian citizen. The couple, who live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, have an 18-year-old daughter, as well as two sons and two daughters who are all under age 18. The children are all Egyptian citizens.

No other member of Soliman’s family has been charged in connection with the attack.

The family entered the United States in late August 2022, and were allowed to remain in the U.S. through late February 2023. Soliman applied for asylum in September 2022, listing his family as dependents, according to DHS.

“El Gamal is a network engineer with a pending EB-2 visa, available to professionals with advanced degrees,” lawyers for the family wrote in their habeas petition.

Soliman’s family is being held at an immigration detention center in Texas, according to one of their attorneys.

Eric Lee, a lawyer for the family, said in a statement, “Punishing individuals — including children as young as four-years-old — for the purported actions of their relatives is a feature of medieval justice systems or police state dictatorships, not democracies.”

“The Trump administration’s vindictive attack on this young family echoes the methods of Nazi Germany, where authorities used kin punishment — Sippenhaft — to intimidate the population,” Lee said.

“The detention and attempted removal of this family is an assault on core democratic principles and must provoke widespread opposition in the population, immigrant and non-immigrant alike.”

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement, said, “The plaintiff’s claims are absurd and are clearly an attempt to delay justice.”

“Just like her criminal husband, she and her children are here illegally and are rightfully in ICE custody for removal as a result,” McLaughlin said.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Tuesday: “This terrorist will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this.”

Soliman, 45, is charged with attempted murder and other crimes in the assault, which left 15 people and a dog injured.

The group that he is accused of attacking was demonstrating to call for the release of Israeli hostages from the Palestinian terror group Hamas.

Soliman yelled, “Free Palestine!” during the attack, authorities have said.