By COLLEEN SLEVIN, Associated Press
DENVER (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.
Hayam El Gamal and her five children 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 82-year-old woman who was injured in the attack had died.
U.S. 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 U.S. illegally. He is being prosecuted in both state and federal court 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 “to kill all Zionist people.” 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 emergency order 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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