By COLLEEN SLEVIN, JESSE BEDAYN, REBECCA SANTANAAND, HALLIE GOLDEN | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOULDER, Colo. -A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to immediately halt deportation proceedings against the family of a man charged in the firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, to ensure the protection of the family's constitutional rights.

U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher granted a request from the wife and five children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who are Egyptian, to block their deportation. U.S. immigration officials took the family into custody Tuesday.

Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and state counts of attempted murder in Sunday's attack in downtown Boulder. Witnesses say he threw two Molotov cocktails at a group demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, and authorities say he confessed to the attack in custody.

His family members 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 earlier 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.

Eric Lee, one of the attorney's representing the family, said efforts to deport them should not happen in a democracy.

"The punishment of a four-year-old child for something their parent allegedly did, who also has a presumption of innocence, is something that should outrage Americans regardless of their citizenship status," he said.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin described the plaintiff's claims as "absurd" and "an attempt to delay justice."

"Just like her criminal husband, she and her children are here illegally and are rightfully in ICE custody for removal as a result," she said in a statement.

Around 200 people squeezed into the local Jewish Community Center on Wednesday evening for a vigil that featured prayer, songs, a short speech by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and emotional testimony from a victim and witnesses to the attack.

Rachelle Halpern, who has been walking with the group since 2023, said 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."