Daughter of Boulder terror suspect was award-winning student hoping for medical career... now she's being deported
The daughter of an Egyptian national accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at pro-Israel protesters was an award-winning student hoping to study medicine in college.
Habiba Soliman had applied for a scholarship from The Denver Gazette, and shared how much she has learned and grown as a person since immigrating from Kuwait two years ago.
'Coming to the USA has fundamentally changed me,' Habiba said in the essay.
'I learned to adapt to new things even if it was hard. I learned to work under pressure and improve rapidly in a very short amount of time.
But now, she and her family are now set to be deported, following father Mohamed Soliman's arrest over the weekend.
The 45-year-old patriarch had overstayed his visa after entering the US under the Biden administration, however the legal status of his wife and children remain unclear.
In her scholarship essay, Habiba revealed her struggle as she learned English as a sophomore at the Thomas MacLaren School in Colorado Springs.
She was also required to take a foreign language - and opted to learn German.
Her difficulty speaking the native language meant she had no friends and was often alone in her sophomore year, according to the Gazette.
In the years since, she had become more involved in activities at the charter school.
Habiba organized events to build school spirit by starting an Arabic club. She also participated in Big Brothers, Big Sisters to help middle schoolers feel more comfortable transitioning to high school.
She even learned how to play basketball, and received the Highlander Award for Leadership Involvement for her efforts.
Habiba's favorite activity, though, was volunteering at UC Health, which she said 'will help me in my future medical career.'
She explained that when she was younger, her father underwent a difficult surgery that restored his ability to walk.
The high school senior said she considered the procedure nothing short of 'magic' and realized she then wanted to pursue a career in medicine.
'Most importantly, I came to appreciate that family is the unchanging support,' she wrote.
It is now believed her father waited until after Habiba's graduation to conduct the attack that left a dozen people injured - which authorities say he had planned for over a year.
They said federal agents recovered a journal from Soliman's home in which he detailed his plans for the firebombing and said he wanted to 'kill all Zionists.'
When he then conducted the attack on people raising awareness of the hostages still in Gaza, Soliman reportedly yelled 'Free Palestine.'
Authorities later uncovered 16 unused Molotov cocktails upon his arrest, and added that he only threw two of the devices because he was 'scared and had never hurt anyone before.'
In fact, Soliman had passed Uber's criminal background check, and an online resume under his name notes that he was employed by a Denver-area health care company working in accounting and inventory control, with prior employers listed as companies in Egypt.
Soliman listed Al-Azhar University, a historic center for Islamic and Arabic learning located in Cairo, on the resume.
When he was arrested, Soliman reportedly told investigators that he left messages for his family on his iPhone, which his wife then turned over to authorities.
It is unclear whether any of his family members knew of his plans for the attack, but Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said federal agents are questioning them.
'I am continuing to pray for the victims of this attack and for all of their families. Our thoughts and our prayers go out to all of them,' Noem said in a video posted to X on Tuesday.
And I want them to know, justice will be served,' she continued, adding that Soliman's 'despicable actions will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.'
The terror suspect is now facing 16 counts of attempted murder and federal hate crime charges after allegedly launching the makeshift flamethrowers on Sunday.
Authorities have also said Soliman first entered the US in Los Angeles on August 27, 2022, and was allowed to stay through February 2, 2023, on a non-immigrant visa but never left.
He was granted a work authorization permit on March 29, 2023, which was valid through March 2024, with the Trump administration slamming the previous White House for granting the permit while Soliman was an illegal immigrant.
'(Soliman) was granted a tourist visa by the Biden Administration and then he illegally overstayed that visa. In response, the Biden Administration gave him a work permit. Suicidal migration must be fully reversed,' Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller previously wrote on X.
But those who lived near the family in Colorado Springs said they were stunned by Mohamed's alleged actions, and said they knew his wife and daughter to be kind.
Neighbor Rachel Delzell said she went to the city's only mosque with Soliman's wife, and although she had not met Mohamed, she told the New York Times that she couldn't believe the alleged attacker came from the family.
'I can't believe he was a part of that,' she said. 'You don't raise a daughter like that and have a wife like that, and do something like that.'
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