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The White House is pinning the blame on the Biden administration for Sunday’s terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado, that left a dozen people injured — including a Holocaust survivor.
The suspect involved in the attack, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, first entered the U.S. under the Biden administration and had overstayed his visa, multiple Department of Homeland Security sources first told Fox News.
“This tragedy is a sobering reminder of the consequences of the Biden administration’s failed policies,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a White House press briefing Tuesday.
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“He overstayed, filed an asylum claim and was given a work authorization by the Biden administration,” Leavitt said. “Instead of deporting this heinous individual, Joe Biden’s administration allowed him to stay in our country and to work. President Trump sounded the alarm over these reckless Biden policies for years because this is the predictable result of letting anti-American radicals and illegal immigrants pour into our country.”
A spokesperson for former President Joe Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Soliman, 45, yelled “Free Palestine” and attacked those attending an event in Boulder, Colorado, according to law enforcement officials.
The event was organized by “Run for Their Lives,” a grassroots group that holds events urging the release of Israeli hostages. Soliman used a makeshift flamethrower to conduct that attack, officials said.
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Furthermore, Soliman remained U.S. illegally after his visa expired, three Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sources told Fox News. Soliman first came to the U.S. in 2022 on a nonimmigrant visa, and eventually received work authorization to stay. However, that authorization expired in March.
FBI officials are coordinating with local law enforcement to investigate the attack, according to FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.
“We are investigating this incident as an act of terror, and targeted violence,” Bongino said in a Sunday post on X.
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Meanwhile, the Justice Department announced Monday that Soliman faces a federal hate crime charge, as well as state charges for attempted murder in Colorado.
“The Department of Justice has swiftly charged the illegal alien perpetrator of this heinous attack with a federal hate crime and will hold him accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Our prayers are with the victims and our Jewish community across the world,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a Monday statement.
Meanwhile, former lawmakers and officials have cautioned for years about the possibility of foreign terrorists entering the U.S. illegally and conduct attacks against U.S. citizens.
“I have warned for some time now about the threat that foreign terrorists may seek to exploit our southwest border or some other port of entry to advance a plot against Americans,” former FBI Director Christopher Wray told the House Judiciary Committee in April 2024. “Just last month, for instance, the Bureau and our joint terrorism task forces worked with ICE in multiple cities across the country as several individuals with suspected international terrorist ties were arrested using ICE’s immigration authorities.”
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