Trump Officials Leave Out One Key Detail on Colorado Attack Suspect
Trump and his team keep saying the suspect behind the Boulder, Colorado, attack was here illegally. But was he?

Trump officials claim the suspect behind Sunday’s attack in Boulder, Colorado, was in the United States illegally. But they’re leaving out one convenient detail: He had filed an asylum application.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national, has been charged with a federal hate crime for attacking peaceful demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza, leaving eight people injured.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Soliman entered the country on a B-2 tourist visa in August 2022. He filed for asylum the next month, and his visa expired the following year.
Donald Trump and his entire administration seem to have seized on the expired visa as proof that an “illegal” immigrant committed such a heinous crime.
“He came in through Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly,” said Trump in his own statement on Monday, conveniently ignoring that Soliman entered the country on a tourist visa. “This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland.”
“The Colorado Terrorist attack suspect, Mohamed Soliman, is illegally in our country,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.
“There’s certainly a concern that the previous administration allowed way too many terrorists and illegal immigrants into the interior of our country,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “This individual, this terrorist, was allowed into the country by the previous administration, was foolishly given a tourist visa, and then was illegally allowed to stay.”
But each of these statements seems to be obfuscating the truth: If you file for asylum, you are not here illegally until a judge denies that request. Until then, you have a pending asylum application.
“He entered the country in August 2022 on a B2 visa that expired on February 2023. He filed for asylum in September 2022,” McLaughlin said on X on Monday.
But what happened next? If his asylum application was denied and he stayed anyway, why wouldn’t she say so?
Perhaps because that’s not the case. Soliman entered the country legally, filed for asylum, and then very likely was living here while he awaited the decision. Asylum applicants who have been awaiting a response for longer than 180 days are typically granted work authorization, under laws passed by Congress decades ago.
In other words, Soliman was not in the country due to Biden’s “open border” policy. But then again, Trump and co. have never liked sticking to the facts.