A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to immediately halt deportation proceedings against the wife and five children of a man charged in the firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, responding to what the judge called an urgent situation to ensure the protection of the family’s constitutional rights.
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to immediately halt deportation proceedings against the wife and five children of a man charged in the firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, responding to what the judge called an urgent situation to ensure the protection of the family’s constitutional rights.
U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher granted a request from the family of Mohamed Sabry Soliman to block their deportation, after U.S. immigration officials took them into federal custody Tuesday.
„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 in the order.
The family members have not been charged in the attack on a group demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and state counts of attempted murder in the Sunday attack in downtown Boulder.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Wednesday that the family were being processed for removal proceedings. It’s rare that family members of a person accused of a crime are detained and threatened with deportation.
„It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives“, attorneys for the family wrote in the lawsuit. „Such methods of collective or family punishment violates the very foundations of a democratic justice system.“
Soliman’s wife, 18-year-old daughter, two minor sons and two minor daughters all are Egyptian citizens, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
„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“, Noem said in a statement.
Noem also said federal authorities would immediately crack down on people who overstay their visas, in response to the Boulder attack.
Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his planned attack, according to court documents that, at times, spelled his name as „Mohammed.
