Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on Tuesday arrested and detained the wife and five children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the Egyptian man who allegedly led a terror attack Sunday on a Jewish demonstration in Boulder, Colo., that was meant to draw attention to hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“Today the Department of Homeland Security and ICE are taking the family of suspected Boulder, Colorado, terrorist and illegal alien Mohamed Soliman into ICE custody,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a video message on social media Tuesday.

Noem said that the agency would also be investigating what his family knew about the attack, which injured 12 people. The suspect allegedly threw homemade Molotov cocktails into the crowd.

Visas revoked

The State Department revoked the visas of Soliman’s wife and children after the attack, said Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson. ICE officials arrested them Tuesday, she said.

The White House trumpeted the arrests on social media, saying Tuesday afternoon that the family “could be deported by tonight.”

Soliman entered the United States in August 2022 on a tourist visa, which he later overstayed, DHS officials said Monday. He applied for asylum in fall 2022 with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but his case was still pending, officials said. During his time waiting for his case to be processed, he was able to obtain a work permit, they said.

Trump administration officials have pointed to the attack as proof of what they say were lax immigration policies during the Biden administration.

“Suicidal migration must be fully reversed,” Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said on social media Sunday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that his agency would be targeting other foreign nationals for potential revocation of visas.

“In light of yesterday’s horrific attack, all terrorists, their family members and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump Administration we will find you, revoke your visa and deport you,” he wrote on social media Monday.

The attack

Soliman had 18 Molotov cocktails and had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in Sunday’s demonstration; he threw just two while yelling “Free Palestine,” police said.

The two incendiary devices he threw were enough to injure more than half of the participants in the weekly demonstration, authorities said, noting that he expressed no remorse about the attack.

Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his plans, according to court documents.

He targeted what he described as a “Zionist group,” authorities said in court papers.

“He stated that he had been planning the attack for a year and was waiting until after his daughter graduated to conduct the attack,” the affidavit says.

Soliman left an iPhone hidden in a desk drawer at his Colorado Springs home that contained messages to his family, according to an FBI affidavit. After his arrest, his wife brought the phone to the local police department, saying it was his but was also used by other members of the family.

This report contains information from the Associated Press