Judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from deporting family of Boulder attack suspect

Washington — A federal judge in Colorado temporarily blocked federal immigration officials from removing the wife and five children of the man charged in Sunday’s attack in Boulder from the country or the state.

U.S. District Judge Gordon Gallagher issued brief relief to Hayem El Gamal, the wife of Mohamed Soliman, and their children in order to preserve the court’s jurisdiction over the case. 

“Moreover, 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.

The judge also set a hearing on a request for a temporary restraining order for June 13 at the federal courthouse in Denver.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had taken into custody Soliman’s wife and children and said they were being processed for removal proceedings from the U.S. Four of the children are minors, and the fifth is 18 years old.  

Federal immigration records show the wife and children are being held at a federal detention center in Dilley, Texas, designed to house families with minors. The family had lived in Colorado Springs.

An Egyptian national, Soliman and his family first came to the U.S. in August 2022. He filed for asylum that September, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Soliman is facing multiple counts of attempted murder and a federal hate crimes charge for the attack Sunday that left wounded more than a dozen people who were at a march supporting Israeli hostages, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor.

He is accused of using Molotov cocktails in the attack that left multiple people burned, according to law enforcement. Witnesses said Soliman yelled “Free Palestine” and “End Zionist” during the attack. 

Camilo Montoya-Galvez

contributed to this report.