Latest news with #MohamedSabrySoliman
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump has demolished the liberal myth. Migrants shouldn't be treated equally
Sometimes the best policies are the ones that produce the shrillest wails from the Left. Such may be the case with Trump's latest travel ban, which by rights should spark serious soul-searching in Britain. Overnight, the President announced restrictions on the citizens of 12 countries. This was a response to the recent terror attack on Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, is alleged to have thrown firebombs and sprayed burning petrol at a Jewish vigil on Sunday in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Although Egypt is not on the list, Homeland Security officials said Mr Soliman was in the country illegally, having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022. So far, so Trumpian. (He took similar measures during his first term, after all, and they were repealed by Joe Biden who called them 'a stain on our national conscience'.) But then came the kicker. 'We will not let what happened in Europe happen in America,' Trump said. Ouch. If the months of Trump 2.0 have so far shifted the Overton window across the West, allowing even the likes of Sir Keir Starmer to contemplate – at least rhetorically – tackling immigration, then such a travel ban should be welcomed on these shores as well. Already, the usual suspects are accusing Trump of being 'racist'. But a glance at the range of countries on the list shows that this is not a question of race, or even religion. Rather, it is a question of homeland security, and that holds a stark lesson for Britain. A few months back, official data revealed that though foreigners comprise just 15 per cent of the population of our country, they commit 41 per cent of all crime and up to a quarter of sex crimes. In the first nine months of 2024, almost 14 per cent of grooming suspects were Pakistani, five times their share of the population. Two nationalities – Afghans and Eritreans – were more than 20 times more likely to account for sexual offence convictions than British citizens, according to the data. Overall, foreign nationals were 71 per cent more likely than Britons to be responsible for sex crime convictions. Based on convictions per 10,000 of the population, Afghans with 77 convictions topped the table with a rate of 59 per 10,000, 22.3 times that of Britons. They were followed by Eritreans, who accounted for 59 convictions at a rate of 53.6 per 10,000 of their population. In March 2025, data from the Ministry of Justice revealed that foreigners, who claim £1 billion a month in benefits, were also responsible for large proportions of violence, robbery, fraud and drug offences, between 2021 and 2023. There was no data for terrorism offences or acts of anti-Semitism. But does anybody want to hazard a guess? Which brings us to a fundamental question. Why? Why does Britain need to allow the criminals of the world to come to our shores to abuse women and girls, run criminal enterprises, foster terrorism and anti-Semitism, and claim benefits in the process? Obviously not all foreigners from these countries behave in this way. But facts aren't racist. Large numbers are pulling down our pants, spanking our buttocks and pulling them up again. In fact, the problem is not one of race but one of politics and culture. In my new book, Never Again? How the West Betrayed the Jews and Itself, which is coming out at the end of September, I look at groundbreaking research published in April by cognitive scientists Scott Barry Kaufman and Craig Neumann. They found that 'citizens in democratic countries have more benevolent traits, fewer malevolent traits, and greater well-being' than those living under autocratic regimes. Based on a study of 200,000 people from 75 countries, people living under autocracies were found to be much more likely to exhibit the 'Dark Triad' of negative personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. In democracies, by contrast, more people displayed the 'Light Triad' of humanism, faith in humanity and 'Kantianism', or treating people with dignity in their own right rather than viewing them as a means to an end. Obviously, this is not related to race. Russians are hardly black, but they hardly live in a democracy either. It is a case of cognitive development. The problem occurs when, in an age of global travel, 'Dark Triad' migrants who grew up in despotic regimes encounter gullible 'Light Triad' officials in the democracies, whose empathies are easily played upon. That is why we find British judges ruling that an Albanian convict should avoid deportation because his son had an aversion to foreign chicken nuggets, a Pakistani drug dealer could stay so he could teach his son about Islam, and a paedophile of the same nationality should not be sent home since it would be 'unduly harsh' on his own children. These real-life cases, reported by the Telegraph, provide a clear collision of the 'Dark Triad' traits in the criminals and the 'Light Triad' tendencies in the judges. It is a chemical reaction waiting to happen, and the vast majority of the population, wherever they are born, are suffering the consequences. In other words, we are being taken for fools. No foreign criminal has a God-given right to set up home in Britain just because he fancies it. This is our home, and although we are delighted to welcome strangers, that generosity should be withdrawn from those who nick our television and threaten our children – even if their own happen to like the chicken nuggets in our fridge. Trump has now thrown down the gauntlet. What is the British Government going to do to set our own house in order? Will it take an anti-Semitic outrage like the firebombing in Colorado before the Prime Minister takes action? Will he take action even then? Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Roughly 400,000 people are living in the US beyond their tourism visas
The number of people entering the US using temporary visa programs has surged nationally in recent years. Last year, around 8.4 million temporary visas were issued to foreigners visiting the US for business or pleasure, up from 6.5 million back in 2019, according to government data. Around 565,000 nonimmigrant visitors had overstayed their visas by Sept. 2023, Advertisement These classes of visa Advertisement But those overstay rates varied widely by country. Haiti had an overstay rate of around 31 percent, while Japan's was just 0.2 percent. Visitors from Egypt, where Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the accused Colorado attacker, is from, had an overstay rate of a little over 4 percent. Overall, the overstay rate was 1.45 percent. Mexico far outpaced all other countries in temporary U.S. visa application approvals, with about 1.8 million issued in 2023. Brazil, India, Colombia, and Argentina also ranked among the top countries. Arnoldo Benitez, an immigration lawyer who has offices in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, estimated about 30 percent of his clients entered the country through visas and overstayed. 'They were given a certain amount of time in the US, and for whatever reason they overstayed,' he said. 'Now they are in the process of adjusting status.' Robert Warren, a senior visiting fellow at The Center for Migration Studies of New York, said that visa overstayers have always been a part of the immigration story in the US. 'In the last 30 or 40 years, probably 40 percent or so [of undocumented immigrants] have been overstayers. And the rest have come across the Southern border. It's pretty constant,' Warren said. 'It's something that's always gone along at the same time that people were coming across the southern border ... It's just never really been recognized before.' Immigration experts say that getting a visa to the US, including for short-term visits, is not easy. Applicants have to complete a visa form, go through a national security check, pay a fee, and schedule and attend an interview at the local US consulate. The interview acts as a screener to determine whether someone seeking a visa has deep ties in their country of origin — to demonstrate that they will return there — and have the financial means to finance their trip, said Stephanie Marzouk, a Cambridge-based immigration lawyer. Advertisement 'They look at factors such as — what is your career in your home country? What family ties do you have there, right? Is it a person who has a spouse and children, who's coming to the US?' Marzouk said. 'It's not as though they're just handing them out like candy,' Marzouk said. 'Even if you have legitimate family ties or another legitimate reason for coming to the U.S., it's is not always granted.' Approval rates vary depending on a country of origin, said Xiao Wang, founder and CEO of Seattle-based 'It's based off of the US's history with applicants from that country, and specifics about the [individual's] background,' Wang said. 'So when you go to this interview, it can feel very ... very stressful.' Mary Holper, the director of the Immigration Clinic and a clinical professor at Boston College Law School, said that a significant number of visitors tend to avoid overstaying because the penalties for such infractions can be severe. 'If they overstay, that subjects them to deportation. So, for [a lot] of people they don't want to be in a position of being deportable,' she told the Globe. Holper also said that someone overstaying their allowed visiting period, which for a B1/B2 can be up to six months, means their visa could be invalidated making it nearly impossible to get a new one in the future. Advertisement 'So, there are reasons why someone would be incentivized to not overstay their visa because they want to be able to keep coming back and forth,' she said. 'They don't want to jeopardize their opportunity to ever get a visa again.' Marzouk said that sometimes people overstay because going back to their country of origin can be unsafe. 'I think under international law, that wouldn't be considered as an abuse because if people are fleeing persecution, you know, they have a right to do that and they should be able to,' she said. 'They have to get to the US somehow in order to be safe, in order to claim that asylum.' The fact that visas aren't always granted is not something most Americans understand, said Wang from Boundless. 'Many American citizens often don't even realize that you need visas to visit countries, because with their passport they can often ... visit countries without having to file the paperwork in advance,' he said. That privilege isn't shared by those who want to come visit the US. '[They] have to go through a rigorous interview process around the intent of their visits to the US, and that has, in total, has resulted in a relatively low percentage of people who overstay their visa and become undocumented in the US,' Wang said. Omar Mohammed can be reached at
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Boulder County Courthouse lit blue for Jewish victims, against antisemitism
DENVER (KDVR) — The building overlooking the site where an Egyptian man threw Molotov cocktails on demonstrators seeking the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza was lit up Wednesday night to honor the victims and take a stand against antisemitism. The Boulder County Courthouse was illuminated as a show of solidarity with the 15 victims of a firebombing attack that has been called both an act of terror and a hate crime. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, is accused of throwing the homemade Molotov cocktails on the peaceful demonstrators with Run For Their Lives. Boulder Terror Attack: Continuing Coverage 'With support from the City of Boulder and the Boulder community at large, we know as a Jewish community that there are those who will stand up and walk beside us,' said Sen. Michaelson Jenet in a release announcing the symbolic gesture. The display was made possible through a collaboration between the Israeli-American Council Colorado, State Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet and the city and county of Boulder. 'This is a powerful statement of unity and stand against antisemitism in response to the horrific terror attack in Boulder,' said IAC Colorado Regional Director Eldad Malka in a release. The building, located at 1325 Pearl Street, was recently made a National Historic Landmark and was illuminated from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday night. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Malay Mail
4 hours ago
- General
- Malay Mail
US judge temporarily blocks deportation of family of Colorado attack suspect
WASHINGTON, June 5 — A federal judge in Colorado on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting the wife and five children of the Egyptian man charged in a fire-bomb attack in Boulder, Colorado. US District Court Judge Gordon Gallagher said in an order that deporting the family members, who include children ages 4 to 17, without adequate process could cause 'irreparable harm.' His ruling, which set a hearing for June 13, came in response to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the family of the Egyptian national charged with tossing gasoline bombs at a pro-Israeli rally in Colorado on Sunday. The family's suit, filed in federal court in Colorado, sought to win their release from custody and block their deportation while they seek asylum in the US, according to court documents. The Trump administration said on Tuesday that the family members were arrested and would be deported in a fast-track proceeding known as expedited removal. The family's lawsuit argued the process was not applicable because they have lived in the US more than two years. The lawsuit said Hayam El Gamal 'was shocked' to learn that her husband, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was arrested in the Boulder attack on a gathering that commemorated Israeli hostages. 'It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives,' a filing seeking their release said. 'Such methods of collective or family punishment (violate) the very foundations of a democratic justice system.' White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said in an X post that Gallagher, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, was giving 'extraordinary preferential treatment to illegal alien foreign terrorists.' 'The Boulder terrorist is an illegal, his entire family that he imported to America are illegals, and now a Biden Judge is blocking their deportation,' he said. 'End the judicial coup.' Federal officials have said Soliman was in the US illegally after overstaying a tourist visa and had an expired work permit. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said federal agents were 'investigating to what extent his family knew about this horrific attack — if they had any knowledge of it or if they provided any support for it.' El Gamal, 41, is an Egyptian national who was born in Saudi Arabia, according to the lawsuit. She and her children entered the US on visitor visas in August 2022 and are dependents under her husband's still-pending asylum application, the suit said. El Gamal is a network engineer and had applied for a work visa, the filing said. — Reuters
4 hours ago
- General
Vigil held for victims of Boulder firebombing attack as suspect's family fights deportation
BOULDER, Colo. -- Hundreds of people squeezed into the Jewish Community Center in Boulder, Colorado, for a vigil that featured prayer, singing and emotional testimony from a victim and witnesses of the firebombing attack in the city's downtown, while a federal judge has blocked the deportation of the suspect's family. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and state counts of attempted murder in Sunday's attack on a group demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. He is being held in a county jail on a $10 million cash bond and is scheduled to make an appearance in state court on Thursday. Witnesses say Soliman threw two Molotov cocktails at the group and authorities say he confessed to the attack that injured 15 people. Rachelle Halpern, who has been walking with the group since 2023, said during Wednesday evening's vigil that she remembers thinking it was strange to see a man with a canister looking like he was going to spray pesticide on the grass. Then she heard a crash and screams and saw flames around her feet. 'A woman stood one foot behind me, engulfed in flames from head to toe, lying on the ground with her husband,' she said. 'People immediately, three or four men immediately rushed to her to smother the flames.' Her description prompted murmurs from the audience members. One woman's head dropped into her hands. 'I heard a loud noise, and the back of my legs burning, and don't remember those next few moments,' said a victim, who didn't want to be identified and spoke off camera, over the event's speakers. 'Even as I was watching it unfold before my eyes, even then, it didn't seem real.' U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher on Wednesday granted a request from his wife and five children, who like Soliman are Egyptian, to block their deportation after U.S. immigration officials took them into custody. They have not been charged. Federal authorities have said Soliman has been living in the U.S. illegally, and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Wednesday that the family was being processed for removal. It's rare that a criminal suspect's family members are detained and threatened with deportation. 'It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives," attorneys for the family wrote in the lawsuit. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin described the plaintiff's claims as 'absurd' and 'an attempt to delay justice.' She said the entire family was in the country illegally. Soliman's wife, Hayam El Gamal, a 17-year-old daughter, two minor sons and two minor daughters were being held at an immigration detention center in Texas, said Eric Lee, one of the attorney's representing the family. Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his planned attack, according to court documents. El Gamal said she was 'shocked' to learn her husband had been arrested in the attack, according to her lawsuit. On Wednesday, authorities raised the number of people injured in the attack to 15 from 12, plus a dog. Boulder County officials said in a news release that the victims include eight women and seven men ranging in age from 25 to 88. Details about how the victims were impacted would be explained in criminal charges set to be filed Thursday, according to Boulder County District Attorney's office spokesperson Shannon Carbone. Soliman had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in Sunday's demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling 'Free Palestine,' police said. According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told police he was driven by a desire 'to kill all Zionist people' — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel. Authorities said he expressed no remorse about the attack. Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, Soliman spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents. Soliman arrived in the U.S. in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, McLaughlin said in a post on X. She said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that has also expired. Hundreds of thousands of people overstay their visas each year in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security reports. Soliman's wife is an Egyptian national, according to her lawsuit. She is a network engineer and has a pending EB-2 visa, which is available to professionals with advanced degrees, the suit said. She and her children all are listed as dependents on Soliman's asylum application. Soliman told authorities that he had been planning the attack for a year, the affidavit said. Soliman's attorney, Kathryn Herold, declined to comment after a state court hearing Monday. Public defenders' policy prohibits speaking to the media. The attack unfolded against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States. It happened at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot and barely a week after a man who also yelled 'Free Palestine' was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
