He was a chaplain at a children's hospital. Now he's detained by ICE

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He was a chaplain at a children’s hospital. Now he’s detained by ICE
Ayman Soliman’s colleagues say the former interfaith chaplain was a pillar of the Cincinnati community

By Tatyana Tandanpolie
Staff Reporter
Published July 22, 2025 6:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) Tala Ali wasn’t expecting him not to come back. Yes, she had driven her fellow Clifton Mosque board member, Imam Ayman Soliman, to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Blue Ash, Ohio, for his appointment the morning of July 9. Yes, they were prepared for the possibility that he wouldn’t walk back out of that building; a small team of 15 Cincinnati clergy and three state legislators had accompanied them in case they would need to mobilize.

But his lawyers said it was just supposed to be a regular check-in. He was supposed to come back — he should have.

“We took him in,” Ali, chair of the Clifton Mosque, told Salon. “We hoped for the best, but we were strategized for the worst.”

....(snip)....

It’s been nearly two weeks since ICE detained the revered imam and former interfaith chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and the city has been left reeling since. Righteous outcry has turned into an outpouring of support, spawning a flurry of demonstrations across the city, open letters, crowdfunding campaigns and lawmaker interventions as residents appeal for his release.

....(snip)....

Soliman is far from the only victim of ICE’s enforcement actions across the tri-state area, Ali told Salon. Indeed, she was unavailable for a previously scheduled interview because she had to respond to an SOS call about an ICE sighting in a Cincinnati neighborhood. Soliman, she said, is just one target with enough support from enough of the right people to ensure his story is told. ...................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/07/22/he-was-a-chaplain-at-a-childrens-hospital-now-hes-detained-by-ice/