A former children’s hospital chaplain remains detained in Ohio as the federal government attempts to deport him.
Attorneys for Ayman Soliman had hoped an immigration judge would release “the interfaith imam” during a hearing July 29, but the court instead ruled it had no jurisdiction to grant bond in the case.
Soliman, a journalist who escaped persecution in Egypt, was arrested July 9 during a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials near Cincinnati. The Department of Homeland Security revoked the asylum status he received in 2018 and initiated removal proceedings.
“One of the odd issues in this case is that DHS, which previously granted asylum and then terminated it, now seeks an opportunity to re-litigate everything from the beginning and not be limited by any of the prior decisions, prior admissions or prior evidence that they may have put into the record previously,” Rob Ratliff, a member of Soliman’s legal team, said during a virtual press briefing following the hearing.
The situation has implications much beyond Soliman’s case, he explained.
“This should scare every asylee ever in the history of the United States ….”
“The government is seeking the ability to reopen and terminate an asylum granting and have a completely new opportunity to review it … no matter if you’re a permanent resident now or a citizen now, based on the change of political whims,” he said. “This should scare every asylee ever in the history of the United States, quite frankly.”
Next up for Soliman is an Aug. 12 hearing to resolve his legal team’s objections to the government’s legal arguments, which must be submitted before that date. A restraining order barring his removal from the state or nation will expire soon, Ratliff said.
“Then DHS will have full charge over his custody and where they decide the housing,” he said. “It could be anywhere from Louisiana to Guantanamo to Alligator Alcatraz to Sudan.”
However, Soliman’s attorneys have filed a motion in federal court to continue his removal proceedings in Ohio. “His primary residence remains Cincinnati,” Ratliff said. “That is why we filed in that jurisdiction. Certainly, the government could seek to remove it to a different jurisdiction, maybe one that they think is more favorable.”
Daniel Fuentes Espinal
In another immigration case, a Maryland community is protesting the July 21 arrest and detention of Daniel Fuentes Espinal, a Honduran construction worker and pastor who overstayed a visa that expired two decades ago, CBS News reported.
“Fuentes (Espinal) entered the United States on a six-month visa and never left in 24 years. It is a federal crime to overstay the authorized period of time granted under a visitor’s visa,” an ICE spokesperson said in the report.
The father of three was identified as pastor of Iglesia Del Nazareno Jesus Te Amam in Easton, a community near the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Following his arrest, he was detained at a facility in Salisbury before being sent to Louisiana via a center in Baltimore, according to the CBS News report.
A friend of Fuentes Espinal said the pastor has been kept in “subhuman” conditions, CNN said.
“He was sleeping on a bench, couldn’t brush his teeth. … He only had a bucket to use to use the bathroom,” the friend said. “This is a man who has lived for 24 years in the United States, has never been charged with a crime, is a model leader of our community, and they are treating him like something less than human.”
Immigrant detention also is the focus of a new action filed by Democracy Forward and 12 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“The lawsuit demands that the administration comply with a federal law that guarantees members of Congress the right to conduct oversight visits to any U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement site where noncitizens are detained without prior notice,” the legal group said in announcing the action filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The filing comes in response to a new DHS rule requiring members of Congress to provide a seven-day notice before visiting detention facilities and stating access can be limited at some locations.
“Reports of mistreatment have been widespread and have included disturbing details of overcrowding, food shortages, lack of adequate medical care and unsanitary conditions.”
The Trump administration’s mass-deportation campaign has caused crowding in some detention centers never designed to hold such high numbers, the July 30 complaint argues.
“Reports of mistreatment have been widespread and have included disturbing details of overcrowding, food shortages, lack of adequate medical care and unsanitary conditions. At least 11 people have died in immigration custody in just the first six months of this administration. And American citizens have been unlawfully detained by immigration enforcement, in some instances without access to counsel.”
Plaintiffs include U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse, D-Colo; Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y.; Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.; Jamie Raskin, D-Md.; Robert Garcia, D-Calif.; J. Luis Correa, D-Calif.; Jason Crow, D-Colo.; Veronica Escobar, D-Texas; Daniel Goldman, D-N.Y.; Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif.; Raul Ruiz, D-Calif.; and Norma Torres, D-Calif.
Congress and President Trump agreed in 2019 on a framework for enabling congressional visits to any DHS locations where immigrants are being detained, according to the litigation.
Skye Perryman
“Nevertheless, since June 2025, each plaintiff, in his or her official capacity as an individual member of Congress, has attempted to obtain information about conditions at a DHS facility used to detain or otherwise house noncitizens,” the document states. “Each plaintiff has done so by visiting a facility in person, or by giving DHS notice of imminent plans to do so, for the purpose of conducting real-time oversight of that facility. Each of those attempted oversight visits has been blocked by defendants.”
Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said members of Congress have a right and a duty to inspect federal facilities where immigrants are being detained and often abused.
“This lawsuit goes to the heart of our democracy. These individual members of Congress have the constitutional duty, and the legal right, to conduct oversight and investigate how the government treats people in its custody,” she said.
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