COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Secretary of U.S. Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the family of the Boulder firebombing suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was taken into immigration custody.
In a post on X, Noem said, "Today, @DHSgov and @ICEGov are taking the family of suspected Boulder, Colorado terrorist, and illegal alien, Mohamed Soliman, into ICE custody. This terrorist will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 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. I am continuing to pray for the victims of this attack and their families. Justice will be served."
The White House posted on X later on Tuesday, stating that Soliman's "wife and five children" are in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for "expedited removal," which could be as early as Tuesday night, the post read.
"That's used to take persons that are considered national threats or national security concerns. And because of this, they're able to take them out of the country," Denver-based Immigration attorney Arturo Vazquez told Denver7 Investigates on Tuesday.
Vazquez said it's likely the family will be kept together as certain detention centers have family units. ICE detention centers in Colorado do not have these units so the family will probably be taken to another state.
"It's very likely, especially if they are trying to do the expedited removal, that they're just going to keep them all together and just try to take them out of the country altogether at the same time," Vazquez said.
JUST IN: The wife and five children of illegal alien Mohamed Soliman—the suspect in the antisemitic firebombing of Jewish Americans—have been captured and are now in ICE custody for expedited removal.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 3, 2025
THEY COULD BE DEPORTED AS EARLY AS TONIGHT. pic.twitter.com/1EoBhqjzmU
Soliman was born in Egypt and moved to Kuwait, then to the United States in 2022 on a tourism visa, according to DHS.
The department noted Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and has been living in the U.S. illegally since his visa expired in February 2023. The results of that asylum claim are not clear.
Soliman was arrested and booked into the Boulder County Jail on Sunday after he allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at demonstrators in Boulder who were calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, injuring 12 of them.
Authorities said Soliman had planned to kill them all but apparently had second thoughts, according to an affidavit.
The 45-year-old suspect was disguised as a gardener and had 18 Molotov cocktails but threw just two during Sunday's attack in which he yelled “Free Palestine," police said.
The two incendiary devices he did throw at the group of about 20 people staging their weekly demonstration were enough to injure more than half of them, and authorities said he expressed no regrets about the attack.
Soliman faces both federal and state criminal charges, including a hate crime and attempted murder. Additional state charges related to the incendiary devices are expected, and further federal charges are possible. The Justice Department is pursuing a grand jury indictment.
Soliman is currently held on a $10 million bond. His attorney declined to comment after a court hearing, and his next hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told the police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people" — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel.
Vazquez said he hopes that the family members have an opportunity to present their case before they are deported.
"One of the rights is to fight their case, to be able to present their case to the courts — to the immigration courts — and they should be able to fight their case," Vazquez said. "So I'm hoping that they are given that opportunity."
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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- What we know about Mohamed Soliman, Boulder firebombing suspect now charged with a federal hate crime
- ‘A normalization of hate’: Anti-Defamation League reacts to targeted Boulder firebombing
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