A US federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to immediately stop deportation proceedings against the family of the man charged in the firebombing attack on a Jewish group in Colorado.
US District Judge Gordon Gallagher granted a request from the wife and five children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who are Egyptian, to block their deportation.
Immigration officials had taken the family – all Egyptian citizens – into custody on 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,” Mr Gallagher wrote.
Mr Soliman, 45, yelled “free Palestine” during Sunday's attack in the Rocky Mountain city of Boulder, during which he used a makeshift flame-thrower and hurled Molotov cocktails at a group of people gathered to call for the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
At least 15 people, ranging in age from 25 to 88, were injured, some of them seriously.
The FBI said Mr Soliman told police he had planned the attack for a year and that it was specifically against what he described as a “Zionist group”. An affidavit says he confessed to the attack after being taken into custody and told the police he would do it again.
He faces at least eight criminal charges, including a hate crime. His family members have not been charged, and Mr Soliman has told authorities that they knew nothing of his plans.
Federal authorities have said Mr Soliman has been living in the US illegally, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said earlier on Wednesday that the family was being processed for removal. It is rare that a criminal suspect's family members are detained and threatened with deportation.
Mr Soliman arrived in California on a non-immigrant visa in 2022, which expired in February the next year, and had recently been living in Colorado Springs. He had applied for asylum in the US.
His wife and their children are listed as dependants on Mr Soliman's asylum application. Eric Lee, one of the lawyers representing the family, said there should not be attempts to deport them in a democracy.
“The punishment of a four-year-old child for something their parent allegedly did, who also has a presumption of innocence, is something that should outrage Americans regardless of their citizenship status,” Mr Lee said.
