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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Judge ends order blocking deportation of family of man charged in | |
Boulder firebomb attack | |
By Associated Press | |
Updated: | |
7:33 PM EDT, Wed July 2, 2025 | |
Denver, Colorado (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ended an order | |
blocking the deportation of the family of the man charged in the fatal | |
firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado, noting government lawyers say the | |
man’s relatives are not being rushed out of the country as the White | |
House originally stated. | |
were detained by immigration agents on June 3, two days after her | |
husband Mohamed Sabry Soliman was accused of throwing two Molotov | |
cocktails at people demonstrating for awareness of Israeli hostages in | |
Gaza. Prosecutors announced Monday that an who was injured in the | |
attack had died. | |
US District Judge Orlando L. Garica dismissed the family’s lawsuit | |
challenging their detention by immigration authorities. The ruling | |
noted that El Gamal and her children ages 4 to 18 are not eligible for | |
expedited deportations because they have been in the country for over | |
two years, which he said lawyers for the Department of Homeland | |
Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have acknowledged. | |
Soliman is an Egyptian national who federal authorities say was living | |
in the US illegally. He is being prosecuted in both state and for the | |
attack, which prosecutors say injured a total of 13 people. | |
Investigators say he planned the attack for a year and was driven by a | |
desire “.” He has pleaded not guilty to federal hate crimes charges | |
but hasn’t been asked to enter a plea in the state case, which now | |
includes a murder charge. | |
On the day El Gamal and her children were arrested, the White House | |
said in social media posts that they “COULD BE DEPORTED AS EARLY AS | |
TONIGHT” and that six one-way tickets had been purchased for them, | |
with their “final boarding call coming soon.” Those statements led | |
a federal judge in Colorado to issue an temporarily blocking the | |
family’s deportation, Garcia said. | |
The case was later transferred to Texas, where the family is being held | |
in an immigration detention center for families. Garcia is based in San | |
Antonio. | |
Because the family is in regular deportation proceedings, there is no | |
longer any reason to block their deportation, Garcia said. Regular | |
proceedings can take months or even years if decisions are appealed. He | |
also turned down the family’s request to be released from the | |
detention center in the meantime, saying they can pursue release | |
through the normal bond process in the immigration system. | |
Lawyers for the family had challenged their detention as | |
unconstitutional because they said it was intended to punish them for | |
Soliman’s actions. According to a court filing by El Gamal’s | |
lawyers, one of the immigration agents who arrested them told her, | |
“You have to pay for the consequences of what you did.” | |
Garcia said immigration authorities have discretion in deciding who to | |
detain and he did not have authority to review their decision to detain | |
El Gamal and her children. Lawyers for the government said they are | |
being lawfully held because they are accused of overstaying their | |
visas. | |
One of the family’s attorneys, Niels Frenzen, said they hoped to get | |
the family released from the detention center while the deportation | |
proceedings continue. | |
An email seeking comment from the Department of Homeland Security and | |
Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not immediately returned. | |
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