A federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's administration from deporting suspected firebomber Mohamed Soliman's wife and five children, the Daily Wire reported. The 45-year-old and his family overstayed their visas by months prior to the alleged terrorist attack.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Soliman allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at pro-Israel demonstrators at a protest on Sunday. He was allegedly heard shouting "free Palestine" and "end Zionism" while doing so.
Soliman is accused of maiming a dozen of the protesters, including an 88-year-old holocaust survivor. Soliman's family is being held at a Texas immigration detention center as authorities are "investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack," the DHS said.
The man's wife, Hayem El Gamal, and five minor children arrived in the U.S. from Egypt in 2022. They were on a tourist visa, which expired in March after being extended by the Biden administration.
Despite the seriousness of the alleged crime and expired visas, Gallagher granted the request to halt deportation. "Defendants are temporarily restrained and enjoined from removing Hayem El Gamal and her five minor children from the State of Colorado or the United States," the decision states.
BREAKING: Colorado federal judge Gordon Gallagher, a Biden appointee, has issued an order blocking the Trump administration from deporting the wife and five children of Boulder terror suspect Mohamed Soliman. pic.twitter.com/Lo8R1Yp19E
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) June 4, 2025
Federal immigration officials are barred from deporting Soliman's family pending action from the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Gallagher said the situation's "urgency and an ongoing jury trial resulting in the unavailability" of the judge warrants such swift action.
The restraining order will remain in effect until the next hearing scheduled to take place on June 13. Before the attack, Soliman applied for asylum on behalf of his family, which adds another layer of protection from immigration action, the defense's attorney Eric Lee claimed.
"It’s a basic principle of any democracy that individual responsibility is required for punishment or detention. Only in a police-state dictatorship are measures of collective punishment used against the population, especially against asylum seekers, and especially against asylum seekers as young as 4 years old," Lee said, according to the Denver Post.
While the courts make overtures to the downtrodden with this case, the fact remains that Soliman is accused of a truly heinous crime. According to the Associated Press, authorities are investigating whether Soliman plotted and executed Sunday's attack in Boulder, Colorado, with his family's help.
He has been charged under federal hate crime statutes and state attempted murder counts, while his family was also detained for immigration violations. Soliman allegedly confessed to the crime that left victims badly burned and witnesses shaken.
Rachelle Halpern, who was at the demonstration when the attack occurred, recalled seeing Soliman walking around with what looked like a pesticide spray canister just prior to the attack. Halpern realized the danger only when she heard the crashes and people crying out.
"A woman stood one foot behind me, engulfed in flames from head to toe, lying on the ground with her husband. People immediately, three or four men, immediately rushed to her to smother the flames," Halpern said.
The judge does not seem concerned that these are not ordinary asylum seekers by any measure. If Soliman was indeed the person who carried out this attack, his wife and children should receive extra scrutiny, and certainly not special treatment.
