This story has been updated.
A former hospital chaplain’s asylum case has captured the attention of local lawmakers and immigration advocates.
Imam Ayman Soliman, a former chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on July 9. He lacks legal immigration status after his asylum was revoked and is being held at the Butler County Jail.
Soliman and his supporters, including some local politicians and activists, said he came to the United States from Egypt in 2014 after he was persecuted by Egyptian authorities because of his work as a journalist. They said he was arrested and tortured in Egypt, and that he could be killed if he returns.
“Going back to Egypt for me is a death sentence,” Soliman said in a recent video posted on Instagram.
Soliman, 51, was granted asylum in 2018 and later applied for a green card. But officials began the process of revoking his asylum status in December 2024 and officially terminated it June 3.
He has no criminal convictions, according to available court records and his attorney, Christina Jump, who represents him in his civil lawsuits. Soliman’s case leaves many questions that advocates, his lawyers and even he does not have the answer to.
Here’s what we know, and what we don’t know, about Soliman’s immigration case.
Soliman was notified in December 2024 that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security, “intended to” revoke his asylum status. His status was officially terminated June 3, according to Jump, an attorney with the legal division of the Muslim Legal Fund of America.
Jump said the agency did not provide a reason for why his status was revoked.
Asylum seekers must prove their home country’s government is persecuting them or that they’re being persecuted by someone who the government is unable or unwilling to stop. A grant of asylum is not permanent and can be terminated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
According to the Department of Homeland Security website, a person’s asylum status can be terminated if they no longer meet the definition of a refugee, or have been convicted of a serious crime or engaged in terrorist activity. Status can also be revoked for persons who committed a serious, nonpolitical crime outside of the United States prior to arriving here.
If people with asylum status leave the United States, or can be moved to a different country where they will be safe, their status can also be revoked.
Soliman has an ongoing lawsuit against the federal government, which his lawyers believe is the reason his asylum status was terminated.
According to his lawsuit, filed in 2022, Soliman learned that an “FBI flag” appeared on his background check after applying for a job as a prison chaplain in Oregon.
He believes he was wrongly placed on the U.S. Terrorist Screening Database, causing the FBI flag, because of his Muslim faith. He’s made Freedom of Information Act requests to the government to find out why he’s on this watchlist but hasn’t received any answers, according to his lawsuits.
In his lawsuits, Soliman claims the fingerprint match that triggered the FBI flag on his background check did not actually belong to him. He said a subsequent police background check found that his fingerprint did not match the one flagged by the FBI.
“He was wrongly placed on the FBI list,” Soliman’s lawsuit states.
Soliman and his lawyers had a federal court hearing for this lawsuit Nov. 22, 2024. The judge declined to dismiss the lawsuit, Jump said.
Less than two weeks later, on Dec. 4, Soliman received a letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services saying the agency “intended to” revoke his asylum status.
Soliman’s lawyers filed an amended complaint Dec. 20. The government tried to dismiss the case again in January 2025.
His lawyers filed a federal court appeal in a separate case against the Terrorist Screening Center on May 23. Soliman’s asylum status was then revoked June 3.
Federal officials aren’t saying much. ICE officials have not responded to requests to comment and an FBI spokesman said he could not comment.
But the federal response to Soliman’s lawsuit offers some clues about the government’s handling of Soliman’s complaints.
In their response to his lawsuit, federal officials do not confirm or deny Soliman is on any list or in any database, citing national security and stating that it’s their policy not to reveal information about anti-terrorism data.
But they did explain in court documents that a review took place after they received a request from Soliman to address his concerns in 2021. That review, federal officials said, “made any corrections to records that were necessary as a result of his inquiry, including, as appropriate, notations that may assist in avoiding incidents of misidentification.”
The government’s response didn’t satisfy Soliman or his lawyers.
They said in court documents that Soliman “has a reasonable fear of the same harm arising in the future, as he has yet to determine what caused the ‘FBI flag’ on his background check and has not had any meaningful opportunity to refute it.”
Soliman’s attorneys believe the FBI flag, or some other designation, remains because he continued to have issues while traveling, including delays and extra security at airports.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to The Enquirer that being on a terrorist watchlist would be cause for asylum status termination.
Soliman was detained by the Egyptian government and tortured for his work in the country as a journalist, his lawyer and supporters said.
“He’s a political asylum seeker from Egypt who was facing certain death if he gets returned,” said Ohio Rep. Munira Abdullahi, who called for Soliman’s release at a press conference outside ICE offices in Blue Ash.
Khalid Turaani, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Columbus, said Soliman is scared of being deported to a “place where he would be disappeared.”
Soliman came to the United States to escape oppression in Egypt, according to the Muslim Legal Aid of America. He was jailed, beaten and tortured there, after participating in student protests and documenting them in words and photos as a freelance journalist, the group’s website says. “Ayman feared for his safety,” a feature on the site says.
Several of Soliman’s friends and colleagues also raised concerns about his safety when they wrote letters in recent weeks asking the government to reinstate his asylum.
“I am scared for Chaplain Soliman because I know he came to the U.S. seeking asylum from Egypt, where he was the victim of persecution and torture,” wrote Judith Ragsdale, a University of Cincinnati professor who knows Soliman from his work at Cincinnati Children’s. “The value he brings to the United States is immense; the danger to him if he leaves is likewise enormous.”
Cincinnati Children’s officials have not responded to interview requests. But the hospital’s website and the letters of support from Soliman’s friends and coworkers indicate he worked at the hospital as a chaplain for at least the past few years.
Medical professionals, fellow chaplains and the parents of patients are among more than a dozen letter writers who asked the government to reconsider its revocation of Soliman’s asylum. They praised him as a valuable member of the staff who spoke several languages, including Arabic and Spanish.
They also described him as a caring chaplain who provided great comfort to patients and their parents.
“Ayman Soliman kept my husband and I sane,” wrote Audrey Kandil, who said her son spent six months in the hospital and in intensive care in 2023 before recovering and returning home. “He offered us support, a friendly face, and a resource that no other medical professional could offer us.”
Alexandra Hausfeld, a nurse at Cincinnati Children’s, said Soliman “is a man of faith and compassion.”
“I can truthfully attest that he is one of the most humble and hardworking individuals I have met, personally or professionally,” she wrote.
Soliman and his lawyers have said they don’t know what prompted his detention this week, although they seemed to suspect it was possible. He attended his scheduled meeting with ICE in Blue Ash with his lawyer and several supporters, who immediately called a press conference following his detention.
Those supporters said FBI agents asked Soliman questions about people and politics in Egypt before ICE detained him, though neither Soliman nor the FBI have confirmed details of the meeting, which lasted about three hours.
“The fact that the FBI would come to an ICE detention process to ask about political views and political parties in a foreign country … is something to be concerned about,” Turaani said.
It’s also not clear what, if any, role President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown played in the decision to take Soliman into custody. The notice to revoke his asylum status came in the final weeks of former President Joe Biden’s administration, while the decision to go ahead with the revocation came under the Trump administration.
While it’s not known for certain whether the FBI participated in the meeting with Soliman this week, FBI agents have been assigned to work with ICE agents on immigration task forces across the country since Trump’s immigration crackdown began several months ago.
Why did former Cincinnati Children's chaplain lose asylum status? What we know – Cincinnati Enquirer
