The Department of Homeland Security was aware that the man accused of setting multiple pro-Israel demonstators on fire in an attack in Boulder, Colorado on June 1 tried to buy a firearm but was denied after failing a background check last November, but apparently did nothing to alert the Department of Justice or Immigration and Customs Enforcement about Mohamed Sabry Soliman’s status as an illegal immigrant.
According to Colorado Public Radio, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation has confirmed that an automated email was sent by CBI to the federal Department of Homeland Security alerting them that a person without legal immigration status attempted to buy a firearm in Colorado.
But there is no indication that anyone from Immigration and Customs Enforcement took action on that notification, either then or anytime this year, until after Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, threw Molotov cocktails injuring 15 people in Boulder on June 1.
… The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about why they didn’t probe Soliman’s attempted purchase or how, more broadly, they approach immigration enforcement investigations through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which tracks and notifies authorities when people without legal status attempt to buy guns.
The Colorado Public Radio story goes after Republican Rep. Gabe Evans for alleging that the CBI hadn’t alerted the feds to Soliman’s attempted gun purchase. Evans might have been wrong about that particular detail, but his statement that the firebombing “occurred because of failed politics” seems pretty accurate. It’s just that it was the Biden administration, not the CBI, that failed to take any action to take Soliman into custody.
CBI confirmed on Tuesday that Soliman attempted to purchase a handgun at Scheels All Sports in Colorado Springs on Nov. 22, 2024. He never appealed this denial, CBI said, but he tried again on Dec. 30, 2024 to obtain a concealed handgun permit through the state agency and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. He was denied then, too.
When asked by CPR News about the CBI’s email to federal officials, Evans said the bureau hadn’t handled the situation “in a meaningful way” because it did not also alert Colorado’s anti-terrorism center.
A spokesperson for Evans, Delanie Bomar, went further, saying the CBI has “major quality control issues under [Democrats], so until we know that accurate, complete, and actionable info was relayed, the comment still stands.”
And Bomar re-emphasized Evans’ central complaint, even after learning Colorado law enforcement had notified federal immigration officials.
“This should’ve set off alarms on multiple levels,” Bomar said in a statement. “The fact that Soliman was able to continue living in Colorado is proof of Democrats’ weak immigration policies and proof that the attack might have been prevented if the previous Administration’s weak border policies and Colorado’s sanctuary state laws impeded on the ability to properly address this man before he did harm.”
I honestly don’t know if CBI should have contacted the state’s anti-terrorism center just because someone in this country illegally tried to purchase a firearm. Unless there was some sort of specific evidence or knowledge about Soliman’s intentions, there might not have been a need to alert anti-terrorism officials.
While it’s open question about whether this was a failure of state government in Democrat-led Colorado, there’s little doubt that the Biden administration failed to act when it had the power to do so. DHS was notified; not only about Soliman’s attempt to buy a gun, but the reason for the denial. That should have triggered an alert to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as the Department of Justice, and Soliman could have been arrested on federal charges long before he had the opportunity to carry out his attack on pro-Israel demonstrators.
I hope that Rep. Evans and other Republicans in Congress will investigate the non-response by the Biden administration. Biden’s border policies and Colorado’s “sanctuary” laws are important factors, but they don’t explain or justify the lack of any action on the part of DHS, ICE, and DOJ when they had the chance to take Soliman into custody and remove him from U.S. soil.
Read the full article here
