Department of Homeland Security officials said Soliman had entered the United States in August 2022 on a tourist visa, filed for asylum the following month, and remained in the country after his visa expired in February 2023.
“There are millions of individuals like this that we are attempting to locate from the past administration that weren’t properly screened that were allowed in,” Todd Lyons, acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said during a press conference in Boston.
In a social media post, US President Donald Trump called Sunday’s attack “yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland”.
Under former President Joe Biden, ICE prioritised arrests of serious criminals and called for officers to consider humanitarian factors when detaining migrants.
Authorities had identified eight victims by late Sunday – four women and four men, 52 to 88 years of age. Two victims remained hospitalised on Monday. In addition, four more victims who were less seriously injured came forward on Monday.
Rabbi Yisroel Wilhelm, the Chabad director at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told CBS Colorado that the 88-year-old victim was a Holocaust refugee who fled Europe.
Sunday’s attack was not the first high-profile incident of mass violence in Boulder, a university town that attracts many young professionals and outdoor enthusiasts. In 2021, a gunman fatally shot 10 people, including an off-duty police officer, in a local supermarket.
