The Trump administration’s deportation goal has been further fueled by the immigration status of the guy who reportedly attacked participants at an event for Israeli captives in Boulder, Colorado, using an improvised flamethrower and other incendiary devices.
The US government claims that Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who entered the US from Egypt in 2022 and overstayed his original tourist visa, plotted his attack on the event with the express intent of targeting Zionists, according to federal officials. He was charged with a federal hate crime on Monday after yelling “Free Palestine” during the attack, which the FBI has described as an “act of terrorism.”
The incident is already being utilized by the right to rally support for further deportations and combines two common foes of the right: illegal immigration and anti-Israel discourse and deeds. The reaction contrasts with the conservative response to the conflict in Gaza and the right’s response to attacks on Muslims and Palestinians in the United States. Deportations of college students have also been justified by the Trump administration‘s sympathy for Palestinians.
Trump attributed the incident to Biden’s “ridiculous Open Border Policy” in a post on Truth Social. Trump wrote, “He must go out under ‘TRUMP’ Policy.” Terrorism-related offences shall be pursued to the utmost degree permitted by law. This is just one more illustration of the need to secure our borders and exclude illegal, anti-American radicals from our country.
Colorado was the scene of the attack shortly after the Trump administration designated the state and numerous counties and cities, including Boulder, as “sanctuary” jurisdictions that would not assist law enforcement in deportation efforts. The list was later taken down due to opposition from the locations it included. These measures have been mentioned in the attack’s right-wing reportage.
Although the first shooting in DC was carried out by a US citizen and did not give rise to calls for a greater number of deportations, this was the second recent assault in which the perpetrator demanded a free Palestine. These assaults coincide with an increase in support for the use of violence to further political objectives, particularly in relation to the conflict in Gaza.
Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than inhabitants of the United States, according to studies. A webpage detailing how illegal persons are less likely to commit crimes was recently removed by the National Institute of Justice; according to a notice, it is one of several websites and materials being examined for conformity with Trump executive orders.
According to NIJ research, some studies do not distinguish between legal and undocumented immigrants when calculating crime rates since the data might be challenging to interpret. However, according to one study, which examined Texas criminal records from 2012 to 2018, undocumented immigrants had the lowest rates of offences, while US-born Americans and legal immigrants had the highest rates.
