Colorado Dems Passed Migrant Legislation

The Molotov cocktail attack in Boulder, Colorado has ignited national outrage—not just because of the violence itself, but because of the disturbing backdrop that made it possible.

At the center is Mohamed Sabry Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian national who illegally overstayed a visa and launched a premeditated attack on a group of pro-Israel demonstrators. Federal filings indicate that Soliman had been planning the attack for over a year and declared his intent to kill “zionists.”

But what makes this tragedy even more troubling is what happened just weeks before the attack: Colorado lawmakers passed legislation making it substantially more difficult for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to identify, track, and deport individuals like Soliman.

The law, signed by Governor Jared Polis in late May, directly restricts cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. Under the new legislation, Colorado police can no longer honor ICE detainer requests—which are formal asks from ICE to local jurisdictions to hold an illegal alien until they can be taken into federal custody. It doesn’t stop there: the law also bans sharing of immigration status or personal identifying information with ICE.

In effect, the legislation puts a veil over the very data ICE needs to function.

Those who violate this policy? They face up to $50,000 in penalties. That money goes into the state’s new Immigration Legal Defense Fund, which provides free legal services to individuals facing deportation—regardless of how they entered the country, or what crimes they may have committed after arriving.

This bill, promoted as a rejection of federal immigration enforcement, was celebrated by progressive lawmakers. State Rep. Yara Zokaie praised it as a direct response to what she called a federal “crisis” targeting immigrants. But in light of the Boulder attack, critics argue it’s not just misguided—it’s dangerously out of touch.

Stephen Miller, former White House senior adviser, called the attack an example of the consequences of “suicidal migration” policies. He pointed out that Soliman was not just allowed to stay but was actually granted a work permit despite overstaying his tourist visa—a paper trail that reveals staggering policy failures.

So here we are: a violent anti-Semitic attack, carried out by someone who by every definition should not have been here. And instead of building tools to prevent such threats, Colorado has made it harder to act, and even easier for others to disappear into the system.